2nd door on the left….flush twice….

Posted on October 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Of all the gods, Death only craves not gifts:
Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured
Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed
By hymns of praise. From him alone of all
The powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof.

~~ Aeschylus (525-456 BC) ~~

— Frag. 146 (trans. by Plumptre) —

To look at these flowers, bright, plentiful, full of life, one might think it did not fit with the quote from Aeschylus, but, one would be wrong, wouldn’t one? Death comes to all of us, no matter how alive we feel at the time of its arrival…. nor does it care how blue we are, nor how bright…. And, as the poem says, it takes no excuses, no delays, and no arguments; when it is time, one has no choice but to go with Death, wherever it may lead us….

A bit of a grim outlook, unless one is confident of what happens afterward, it would seem, unless, and until, one considers Life, and consciousness as a form of energy…. Since energy cannot be destroyed, only altered in form (as water is…. wonderful synchronicity there….), the only question to be answered is WHERE does that consciousness GO? I’m afraid there isn’t any evidence available to tell us, other than the fantasies made up by a number of religiously minded folks; those, however, do not place their faith in their guesses as to what happens after we die based on evidence that can be seen, felt, or otherwise acknowledged as real, but, rather, on a set of assumptions with no basis in the real world, only in their imagination….

Me, I prefer the outlook taken by Robert Heinlein, who advised us that we will know soon enough what happens, so why fret about it? Nothing we do here and now has any effect on what happens after we die; furthermore, there is nothing in the universe we can see to give us any indication that little fact isn’t true. If it isn’t true in THIS universe, why should it be true in another? I never did see any sense in trying to make people behave themselves in this world, to ensure our place in the next; that’s just bribery, and not a good way to stimulate behavior, or to build a morality inside someone….

Morality, and ethics, must come from within us, by choice, or they mean NOTHING. Choices, and behaviors that arise in us out of the hope of a reward are not how real humans become ethical creatures; we do that by learning to choose the right action, then, make that our duty, our CHOICE, not made in response to a bribe, or, even worse, in response to a threat of punishment for wrong behavior….. That only teaches people to become sycophants, always seeking someone’s favor by performing unethical acts, justified by their own delusions of adequacy….

SIGH…. Damn! I did it again, didn’t I? I sat down, and led myself by the nose right into a rant…. Boy, in looking back over it, I’m amazed…. I didn’t think even I could start into it that quickly, or that seamlessly…. it just sort of flowed out, as I started to type… and, now look at it…. Four bloody paragraphs, of pretty decent ranting, but, chock full of the deitrus left in my head after a night’s dreaming, and way too early in the process…. I may have driven off any newbies in the intro with this little diatribe….. can’t have that….. I guess I’ll have to use the rip-stop method, and get us out of here the hard way, before this gets any worse….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.” — ee cummings

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“Only the educated are free.” — Epictetus

If we are to believe Epictetus, it is our duty as free men and women to educate ourselves… In view of that, here are some articles from the recent past, taken from several different news sources… Some of you may note the absence of material from SFGATE, which I formerly used extensively….. I’m sorry to say, the folks who run that site have gone bonkers; they’ve altered the look and feel of it until it now resembles the National Enquirer for sleaze level of the covered material, and increased even further the use of auto-play videos, advertisements, and just plain BS until my computer seized up while trying to load it…. So, I gave up on it, and confine myself to other sources on the Net, of which there is no lack…

That said, the articles today mostly focus on the lies being told to us by the Obama Administration, which are merely a continuation of the same line of bullshit they’ve been doling out for close to seven years now. Despite having made the promise, twice, to display transparency in his administration, this president has pursued a course of lies, secrecy, and clandestine spying on not only the rest of the world, but, on his own people. When confronted about any of it, they become obtuse, and even more lies come out of their mouths, which, given the previous events, is quite astonishing in its volume, and degree of chutzpah, otherwise known as unmitigated gall….

The revelations by Edward Snowden are being confirmed and justified at every turn…. Below, you will find one article which speaks to the extent of the spying, and how we, the people, can, and are, learning to show exactly how they are spying on us, and on everyone, graphically and accurately…. I’ve included a nine minute video describing the responsible artists vision, with accompanying links to the review, and to the You Tube site where other videos of the same nature may be found….

Stay alert, ffolkes, the Asininnies are doing everything in their power to shut us all down; nothing would make them happier than to completely take over the Internet from public control, so, we need to stay on top of what they are up to, in order to at least offer a token resistance… if not outright revolution, an alternative much of the world is seemingly finding increasingly attractive….

With each article, I’ve included, below the link, a pertinent excerpt from the article’s text, or a short comment, to give a notion of the material upon which to focus your attention…. At the end, you’ll find another old-school pearl, to deliver the final blows for this section, hopefully to good effect…. Okay, ffolkes, dig in!….. Remember! An educated voter is a danger to all politicians, so, educate yourselves!….

http://www.examiner.com/article/nsa-document-supports-whistleblower-claim-of-alien-ufo-communication-program

Really? Spying on alien/UFO communications? What were they thinking?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-calls

This one is full of information, but most of it is from the past couple years; only a small portion is current. It does give a good indication of how widespread the NSA’s surveillance has become across the world.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/13/photographer-artist-maps-world-of-surveillance-agencies-treovr-paglen

“…the US National Security Agency headquarters in Maryland, the National Reconnaissance Office in Virginia and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Virginia. These agencies, which respectively lead national security, run spy satellites and manage mapping intelligence, had a combined budget request of more than $25bn in 2013”

http://youtu.be/9Igfu0VwdkQ

https://news.yahoo.com/secretive-x-37b-military-space-plane-could-land-132030466.html

More proof of the lack of White House transparency; this project has been running for Obama’s ENTIRE TERM OF OFFICE, with only occasional, small, buried articles like this one, with no hard information, and no admissions or comments from the White House, or military officials, as to just WHAT they are hoping to accomplish with these missions…. Again, not a bit of transparency that I can see….

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/13/st-louis-protests-religious-leaders-messages-anger-ferguson-activists

“In the early hours of Sunday morning, dozens of activists attempted to occupy a convenience store in support of Myers. The police arrested 17 people for unlawful assembly”

Okay, the last one is a different subject, but, you’ll note the italicized phrase at the end…. I thought the Constitution made assembly for protest lawful…. How is it possible to make laws that abrogate that? Just wondering….. Okay, here’s the pearls, which I hope makes them bleed profusely from numerous serious wounds about the neck and shoulders…. those portions, conveniently enough, they always show on TV, when they assume their “talking head” personae…. Oh, and just for fun (well, fun for ME….) I have placed two extra pearls at the end, which take a couple shots at the other side of that coin, the religious dogmatists who support the talking heads with their preaching….

“I don’t pick on politicians. They ain’t done nothin’.” — Red Skelton

“If you’re facing the richest and most disgusting conspiracy in history, you have to do more than stick up two fingers and say “peace”. — Ben Elton, Stark

“The maxim that “Honesty is the best policy” is one which, perhaps, no one is ever habitually guided by in practice. An honest man is always before it, and a knave is generally behind it.” — Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin

“An accommodating vice is better than an obstinate virtue.” — Motto engraved over the entrance to the chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States

“Them that has, gets.” — Iron Law of Distribution

“The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Worship”

“A plague of all cowards, I say.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act ii, Sc. 4

——————-

“No creo en Dios, pero le tengo miedo.” [I don’t believe in God, but I’m afraid of Him.] — Gabriel Garcia Marquez, — “El Amor en los Tiempos de Colera”, 1985

“The church is actually patronized by the social order as a means of stabilizing and perpetuating the existing system.” — C. C. Morrison

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Though it’s out of order, the poetry section remains the anchor for all the rest; today, we’ll go for a classic author, one whose reputation is beyond any harm I can cause by association….

All Is Truth

O ME, man of slack faith so long!
Standing aloof–denying portions so long;
Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth;
Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie, and can be none,
but grows as inevitably upon itself as the truth does upon
itself,
Or as any law of the earth, or any natural production of the earth
does.

(This is curious, and may not be realized immediately–But it must be
realized;
I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest,
And that the universe does.)

Where has fail’d a perfect return, indifferent of lies or the truth?
Is it upon the ground, or in water or fire? or in the spirit of man?
or in the meat and blood? 10

Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into myself, I see
that there are really no liars or lies after all,
And that nothing fails its perfect return–And that what are called
lies are perfect returns,
And that each thing exactly represents itself, and what has preceded
it,
And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just as much as
space is compact,
And that there is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of the truth–but
that all is truth without exception;
And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am,
And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.

~~ Walt Whitman ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shameless, aren’t I? Today’s video section is devoted to CUTE…. and what is cuter than puppies? Nothing, but, perhaps, kittens (See tomorrow’s Pearl…. Never say I don’t give ffolkes what they want….)

15 great Golden Retriever Puppy videos

http://youtu.be/t0KwtuYyy3A

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In just a few minutes yesterday, Smart Bee offered up these seven pearls, grouped just as they are…. Obviously, they comprise a comment SB decided was either important, or at minimum, helpfully relevant, on human nature, and the process of deciding what sort of human we wish to be…. After the seven-star pearl is a separate pearl, which stands alone, but, makes a very cogent, as well as hilarious observation as to the proper perspective in which to hold our personal world-view….

Well, maybe that’s a bit high-minded, but, it did make me laugh, loud and long, with a strong sense of sardonic resignation… or, perhaps, it was irony I felt, along with a strong sense of wonder, at the depths of human ignorance; the wonder arises from the astonishing fact of our survival for this length of time….

“He is never less at leisure than when at leisure.” — Cicero (106-43 BC) — De Officiis, iii, 1

“A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.” — Richard Burton (1577-1640)

I slept and drempt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was duty.
I acted and beheld that duty was joy.

— Rabindranath Tagore

“If you don’t know where you’re going, when you get there you’ll be lost.” — Yogi Berra, Baseball Hall of Famer, NY Yankees

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” — Albert Einstein –

“Time is a great teacher but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.” — Hector Berlioz (1803-69), French composer

Ode to an Indispensable Man

Sometime, when you’re feeling important,
Sometime, when your ego’s in bloom,
Sometime, when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room;
Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow this simple instruction
And see how it humbles your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water;
Put your hand in it, up to the wrist.
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is the measure of how you’ll be missed.
You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you’ll find in a minute
That it looks the same as before.
The moral in this quaint example
Is to do the best that you can.
Be proud of yourself, but remember –
There is no indispensable man.

~~ Saxon White Kessinger ~~

As the final note, mentioned above:

“A priest was walking along the cliffs at Dover when he came upon two locals pulling another man ashore on the end of a rope. “That’s what I like to see”, said the priest, “A man helping his fellow man”. As he was walking away, one local remarked to the other, “Well, he sure doesn’t know the first thing about shark fishing.” — Smart Bee

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, it’s a lot, so, I’ll keep this short…. Today’s Pearl has been brought to you by….. wait a minute! We have no corporate sponsors here! Get that out of here!…. Okay, whew, sorry…. didn’t see the little bugger until he jumped up & tried to give his pitch…. Any who, I’m done, and I think we can all get behind that today, right? Right….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Passages from the Book of Righteousness….

Posted on September 24, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“After I’m dead I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.”

— Cato the Elder ~~

(234-149 B.C.)

Some days, one feels a sense of imminent changes; it’s as if the winds of Time are blowing softly, whispering soft promises of new and different, leaving us shivering in anticipatory delight, with unreasoning hope…. Then, of course, there are days like today, when one is unsure if time is even in force, a not unfamiliar sensation for such as us, resigned to Fate, filled with sorrow and painful realization of the impending catastrophic events faced by a world unaware of its own danger…..

SIGH…. ‘Twould be easy indeed to give in, to just crawl back under the covers, & pretend it will all go away if we can only ignore it long enough…. But, this time, things ARE different, more so than we know, more than most may guess…. It is times such as these when I lament my perceptions, and my ability to see the larger picture; it would be nice, indeed, to be able to ignore what I see, to be able to say with some degree of confidence that I believe there is a bright future for our species…. It would be nice, and, it would be totally false…

So, I won’t say any such thing…. nor, at this point will I belabor this point any further…. I’ve stated my views on the coming environmental crisis, (or crises, I should say; I doubt it will be as simple as having only ONE crisis to deal with….); as well, I’ve shown where the all-too-obvious evidence is located, should you wish to read it…. and, as I can attest, it’s ugly news…. None of it is calculated to make for a nice, peaceful breakfast, whether one is going continental, with coffee & pastries, or going for the full Irish…. the coffee will grow cold as you contemplate the future, with fear and loathing, and, the croissants, or the eggs, very likely won’t be quite so appealing….

One of the changes you’ll see will be on this blog…. On the first of October, I’ll be making an announcement regarding my plans, which will have an effect on this blog, a significant effect, to be sure. I’ll save the rest for then; it’s but a few days now, and once the plans are complete, I’ll let y’all know what they are…. For now, suffice it to say, on a personal level, changes are not merely desired, but, required, if I am to be able to live my life the way I intend to live it…. On that note, we will bring this to an almost unprecedentedly smooth opening, with actual introduction-like features, to a dignified, and timely close…. imagine that!

I believe the following two-fer, (SIGH… if you insist upon accurate use of the traditional metaphor, imagine a pair of earrings, set with perfectly matched pearls….), will give you the clearest idea, as far as the desired mood/attitude I wish to encourage/demand today…. I will also point out, it would be helpful if you are up to date on your insurance….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“I brought my BOWLING BALL – and some DRUGS!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“And furthermore, my bowling average is unimpeachable!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“There are no other colours without the blues.” — Doctor Who

For close to three years now, I’ve been venting all the feelings of anger and betrayal I feel at what I’ve seen transpire in this country, and in the world at large…. I suppose you could say I have been a historian, in the sense I’ve observed the events of human interaction in my own time, along with learning of other times, through the simple expedient of reading a book, every day, for almost 60 years now, having learned to read at age four. I’ve also watched the smaller interactions, between people, including myself, for all that time, comparing every thing I learned to what came before, to help me to be able to have some idea of what COULD happen next…. a very valuable skill, insight….

My insight tells me there are hard times coming, ffolkes. I don’t know how much more clearly I can deliver the message to the world…. Of course, it would help if more than just a tiny, tiny, insignificant portion of that world is HEARING my message, but, I doubt I am the only one spouting off on this, so, that can’t be the entire problem…. I do read others who say the same as I do, with much more viewing power than I possess…. but, nobody really wants to hear it, because it’s too hard, and too scary to think about…. So, most folks do what people generally do when receiving bad news; they ignore it, or deny it….

This time, though, there will be no denial, and ignoring the rise of the oceans will NOT be possible, not when the water is lapping at your shoes…. which, as can be seen already in Florida, it is…. I would imaging it won’t be much more than a few short years before Miami is completely under water, along with about half of the entire state…. The oceans are rising ffolkes, as the ice melts at the poles…. We just had the warmest year on record, and from what scientists can tell from the record of history in nature’s library, last year was the warmest year, average, EVER…. We can no longer ignore the warming trend ffolkes; it is now established as very real….

Of course, the general population, which is starting to get concerned (witness the Walk for Climate Change last Sunday….), it is already too late for that to work; that march might have helped, had it taken place in 1925…. Now, it is far too late to stop the processes we have begun…. In fact, now that the permafrost, which exists all over the world, underground, and undersea, is also melting, releasing chlorine, and other toxic, CATALYTIC substances into the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate…. These chemicals are biological and chemical catalysts, which once reaching a certain level in the air, will produce other changes, that will act incredibly rapidly, to make changes we cannot even predict, thus making them impossible to prepare for….

Ah well, as I said, there is plenty of evidence to show us how we have screwed up, and how badly…. but, nobody seems to want to look at it…. Everyone would rather moan and complain, and march in the streets, instead of doing the ONLY thing that would help…. to wit: Take every elected official, every despot, and every other leading political, religious, and financial leader in the world, and shoot them, right in the head, one bullet for each…. Then the rest of us can start to either get to work moving us all to the asteroids, or the moons of Saturn, or finding SOME way to stop the processes in the environment that are going to kill us, and repair the damage to our world…..

Sadly, ffolkes, the odds are not good for any of that to happen…. Nobody is going to wake up enough people to make a difference…. so, for today at least, I’m done talking about it…. It’s depressing, and it’s at the point where there is no more I can do about it, until I go buy that gun, and some ammo, and set out to make myself feel a bit better…..

So be it….. gigoid has spoken…. quite enough for one day…. However, because he can never shut himself up, here is a five-star pearl to give the proper finish such a somber discussion….

GRAVE, n. A place in which the dead are laid to await the coming of the medical student.

    Beside a lonely grave I stood —
        With brambles ’twas encumbered;
    The winds were moaning in the wood,
        Unheard by him who slumbered,

    A rustic standing near, I said:
        “He cannot hear it blowing!”
    “‘Course not,” said he: “the feller’s dead —
        He can’t hear nowt [sic] that’s going.”

    “Too true,” I said; “alas, too true —
        No sound his sense can quicken!”
    “Well, mister, wot is that to you? —
        The deadster ain’t a-kickin’.”

    I knelt and prayed: “O Father, smile
        On him, and mercy show him!”
    That countryman looked on the while,
        And said: “Ye didn’t know him.”

Pobeter Dunko

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” — Vladimir Nabokov

“Panic now – avoid the rush!” — Smart Bee

“I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” — Smart Bee

I live not in myself, but I become
Portion of that around me;
High mountains are a feeling, but the hum
Of human cities torture.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iii, Stanza 72

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve Winwood, Rick Grech, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker. One album, one mega-talented band. The first time they played together in public was at the concert you will see… For a lot of us old fogies, this brings back some pretty great memories…. As well, it gives those who came after a good visual picture, of the musical concert scene of the late 60’s….

Blind Faith, Live at Hyde Park, London, 1969

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Somehow, when I’m in a mood, Charles fits better than most anyone else….. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do….

Bluebird

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think you will find this pearl to fit perfectly within the parameters set for us by the two-fer in the intro section…. It even ends with another fine sentiment from our old friend, the Z-man…. Y’ll need to enjoy this one ffolkes; it was fun to put together, so I know it will be fun to read, if you let it…..

“I take an instant dislike to lawyers. It saves time.” — To avoid litigation, the author wishes to remain anonymous

“Why don’t cannibals eat clowns? Because they taste funny.” — Smart Bee

“Man possesses limited intelligence, but alas, unlimited stupidity.” —

“It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.” — Arthur C. Clarke

“I find your faith in reality rather amusing.” — gigoid, to himself, frequently

“At first I was uncertain, but now I’m not so sure.” — Heisenberg

“If I felt any more SOPHISTICATED I would DIE of EMBARRASSMENT!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Exactly….. See? I told you, it’s all in the wrist….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So I don’t forget again…. the picture at the top of today’s post is an artist’s rendition of one design for a space elevator, a tethered line to Earth, extending all the way up to geosynchronous orbit, hauling cargo and people, slowly and majestically, up the connecting line, and back down, all with a minimal expenditure of energy…. It is one of the more ingenious ideas Man has devised to get into nearby space, one which may serve us well, if we can manage to survive long enough to build one, or more of them….

Once built, working elevators into orbital space would provide the means to build whole cities, as satellites around the Earth, in space, using solar power as energy, and the advantages to be found by living at the top of a very long, powerful well of gravity…. The engineering possibilities are practically endless, due to the availability of unlimited power from the sun, and nearly unlimited power from using the gravitational difference between the two points, one in space, one anchored to the Earth…. If we live long enough to build it, it also provides a means of launching ships to other planets, from orbit, with much less effort than lifting them up from the surface of the planet….

The closing section, though, isn’t the place for such a discussion, unfortunately; it’s a fascinating concept, though, and should be explored thoroughly, once our species’ priorities have been put into proper order…. I think saving our sorry asses needs to come first…. but, we’ll talk about that tomorrow, or, soon, I’m sure…. In the meantime, I’m outta here, or there, or somewhere… I will, however be back tomorrow, all things being equal….

“DON’T go!! I’m not HOWARD COSELL!! I know POLISH JOKES… WAIT!! Don’t go!! I AM Howard Cosell!… And I DON’T know Polish jokes!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

“The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.”

À bientôt, mon cherí.

Saved… by the Belle of the Ball….

Posted on September 22, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“It’s like brother Nietzsche said–being human is a complicated gig,

so give that dark night of the soul a hug and howl the eternal yes.”

— Chris in the Morning —

DJ on the TV show, Northern Exposure

“Hut! Two, three, four; hut! two, three, four…” The cadence rang out from the grizzled old sergeant, while alongside his ramrod-straight, hard-striding form, marched a column of grim-faced warriors, all tall, rangy specimens with bristling weapons strapped at various places, each one bearing scars from a hundred battles, brave circlets of gold circling arms, brows, and belts, to signify survival. Each somber face held the same eyes, a piercing blue that sharply contrasted the black hair all wore, in long braids tied down for convenience.

From the small knives worn on the belt and calf, to the laser-sword at the belt, to the long-range blasters, mortars, bazookas, and grenades, strapped to the belts worn crossed over the chest, this troop of warriors exemplified the best of the best, trained enforcers of the emperor’s will, the most dangerous soldiers in the galaxy…. Spoken only in a hushed whisper, their name, chosen to bring fear to all, implies the terror of….. the Emperor’s Arm….

We’ll leave the Arm to ready itself for its next battle, while we give a hug to the dark night, and howl with brother Nietzsche, an eternal YES! That sounds marginally better than trying to continue to come up with words I gave up, as part & parcel of my own life, a long time ago…. I have, in my life, had much more than my share of violence to deal with, in spite of having cleverly avoided getting caught up in the illegal warfare this country has been engaging in since before the day I was born…

In fact, the US was involved in its first, though certainly not last, incidence of this country going to a warlike state, but, without having any wars declared by Congress in which to engage, ON the day I was born, in 1950; we’d been in Korea with the UN for months by then…. Then, in 1954, our imperialist corporate masters were having a hard time keeping control of the heroin trade in Southeast Asia, so, we sent Air America, and a bunch of “advisers” to Cambodia, South Vietnam, and Thailand, to protect those corporate interests there…. Ten years later, in 1964, the covers got pulled, so Johnson, Nixon, and the crew sent over a few hundred thousand of our finest young citizens, to die for their corporate masters in the jungles of the Asian continent.

That, of course, kept us busy for a long time, only coming to a halt in 1975, when we finally had to admit defeat, for perhaps the first time in our history…. Well, of course, for our hawks, that certainly wouldn’t do, so, we started to see where in the world we could interfere with the locals, in order to keep our arms dealers happy, and making a steady profit, selling us bombs, and tanks, and all that nice weaponry and vehicles…. which, now that a bunch of it is out of date, is being sent to the police forces in America, to arm them beyond all reason or need….

Since leaving Asia, we’ve mainly been using our armed might to “fight terrorism”, a convenient ghost to chase, distracting the public from how much is being spent on the OTHER undeclared wars we’ve had in the last twenty-five years…. Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again, now Syria…. It makes no sense, except to the arms dealers…. Since WWII, this country has been at war, pretty much constantly, for the entire time period from then to now…. and, I would wager serious money that we’ve spent over 100 trillion dollars, on just arms and ammunition, (planes and bombs add up quickly, at $75 million/day….), WITHOUT EVER DECLARING OURSELVES TO BE AT WAR!….

SIGH…. I really hadn’t planned to rant in the intro today…. that’s why I started with a fictional opening…. But, my talent for finding yet another piece of the crap with we are inundated each day by those assholes in charge of the world is greater than my ability to distract myself, apparently, and it just sort of happens…. Oh well, it got us down to here, & that’s the purpose, anyway, so, I’ll take it…. In fact, I’m going to be ruthless, an unusual state for me…. I’m usually pretty phlegmatic. But, since we’re right here, we’ll let it take us away, just as if we meant to do that….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.” — Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back on 9/18/14, four days ago, I posted a Pearl, the first section of which was comprised of an excerpted rant from a post dated 12/21/2012…. at the end of the part posted, it seemed confusing, having spoken of another part of the rant, which I know now was missing…. It should have been included, at the point where it became confusing… if it had been, there wouldn’t have been any confusion…. To try to alleviate that, or at least soothe my feeling of guilt for having fallen prey to my own bozoid tendencies, I’m reprinting it now, right below this line…. This is the second half of what you should have seen back then….

——————————————–

Here’s a good rant from the archives; it’s a summary rant, with a lot of issues to address…. I would say “enjoy”, but, it would be inappropriate, not to mention, in this instance, more than a little tacky….

From 12/22/2013:

Over the last three years, I’ve been ranting, off and on, about three, or four, groups of people in society whose actions have been causing the rest of us a hard time, continuing to do so, in spite of our best efforts to ‘persuade’ them to cease and desist….. These groups, which I’ve labeled with various derogatory names, just to keep them straight in my mind, and yours, are that part of our species that regards the rest of us as prey….

To these assholes, other people are on this planet merely to see they are supplied with all they wish to have, no matter how those others may feel about that….. Now, I could go into a lot of psychiatric, and/or psychological reasons for all of that, but the plain and simple truth is that they are assholes…. They were born that way, and have never been anything else, society having encouraged them to be so all their lives…. Why they are that way, still, is another matter altogether….

Normally, the universe, in the guise of parents, will supply people with good reasons NOT to be assholes… Sadly, many people never get exposed to those reasons, because their own parents don’t believe in them, having, instead, an enormous, false sense of entitlement, which, in their minds, despite its actual invalidity in reality, gives them the right to walk all over other people to get what they want…. This entitlement arises from one or more of several ideological sources, each of which, though based on completely delusional material, is so compelling, and so attractive to the mind that embraces cheating and immorality, that it has been solidly in control of the society in which we exist for the entire history we have endured….

The shadowy corporate masters who control society, who have done so for millennia, are VERY adept at concealing their presence from all but a few, of whom they have complete control, and nothing to fear…… In this way they have manipulated society for all that time, holding the majority of resources and money under their control, thus giving them very real control over the rest of us, as we all have to eat…. it’s that simple…. That, combined with their willingness to use violence, without any compunctions, or compassion, to achieve their ends, has provided them with the means to maintain their control, as well as the means to keep the rest of mankind in ignorance….

Now, however, their own ignorance, stupidity, and lack of foresight is going to kill them, and there is NOTHING AT ALL they can do about it….. Read this, please, and take heed of what it implies; note especially what it says between the lines of the statistical facts presented…. In other words, read it critically, so you will understand that to which I’m referring…..

http://www.thenation.com/article/177614/coming-instant-planetary-emergency#

This is it, ffolkes…. I’ve been predicting this moment for a long time, though I’d hoped to be wrong for the entire time…. But, it cannot be denied any longer, not now that we have the concrete evidence of our own imminent demise…. I’ve spoken often of a date when a certain flash point will have been reached…. That point has to do with how fast the temperature of the planet is rising, and the changes this will cause to the atmosphere THAT WE ALL BREATHE….

It is my incredibly sad duty to announce, that flash point has been reached…. The new evidence quoted in this article, regarding how fast the permafrost is melting in the Arctic environments, is not merely scary, it is downright terrifying…. It is clear evidence of that flash point I was referring to, and tells us, without doubt, that our time has come….

Do you know what this means, ffolkes? We are talking about an atmosphere that WITHIN FIFTY YEARS FROM NOW, WILL BE DEADLY FOR US TO BREATHE….. That estimate, of MAYBE fifty years, is now ensured of becoming reality….. That’s all, fifty years….. At that point, we all die, ffolkes, and there is no respite, no relief to be found, because, Hey, IT’S TOO FUCKING LATE!…. That’s correct, ffolkes, it’s already too late….

The flash point has come, and gone, and the chemical imbalances that our species has created on this planet will now proceed to kill us all within the next 100 years… Once the process of change reaches the point of parabolic increase, it is IRREVERSIBLE; it cannot be stopped….. And, yes, that figure is right….. I said a hundred years….. That’s if we’re lucky, and scientists DO find some way to slow the process down, once enough people have panicked enough to start trying to fix what we’ve done…

It can’t be done, though….it’s too late, and there is nothing in our technological bag that will fix what we have broken…. For many years, I held out the hope that, no matter how bad it got, we would find a way, through the magic of science, to fix things…. Sadly, that hope was never realized, things just went from bad to worse, and, now, have progressed to the worst-case scenario…. I’d hoped that this little aphorism below would be true…..

“If the Catholic church couldn’t stop Galileo, then governments won’t be able to stop things now.” — Carlo de Benedetti of Olivetti on the folly — of trying to regulate information technology

But, it wasn’t true, because, without us knowing it, it was already too late, by the time we got the computers….. It’s a sad thing, one that threatens to make me pretty angry…. So angry, in,fact, that I may even consider breaking some of my own personal commandments, and spending some of my remaining years hunting…. Since I’m sure you won’t misunderstand me about that, and, to also make sure I’m not jumping the gun, so to speak, let me say this…. I am pretty pissed off about this…. None of what is happening was NECESSARY, or even likely, not without deliberate ignorance of the assholes who put themselves in charge of everyone else, trying to grab all they could for themselves…. If those assholes had learned to share, like everyone else, we wouldn’t be having these issues at all….

But, nooooo, because the fucking Christians feel entitled, or better than anyone else…. or because the richest assholes on the planet can’t share…. or because the whites hate the blacks and browns, who hate the yellows, all of whom are afraid of the greens, we have been doomed, sentenced to a gasping, unpleasant death at the hands of our own planet, and our own people….. It’s enough to make a strong man want to give up, and start blasting away…. an event that may very well occur before too long….

I’ll be ranting about this again, ffolkes, and may not stop until I get enough ammo to start my hunting…. Now, don’t get me wrong… I know my hunting won’t fix anything, other than soothing a few of my own feelings about all of this…. But, maybe, just maybe, the game I bring down just MIGHT slow things down, even just a little, and that won’t be a bad thing….

Of course, we’re all going to have to come to terms with the fact of our own demise, and sooner than we had thought…. THAT should be an interesting show, to be sure…… Actually, I’m kind of looking forward to the time when all those asses realize what they’ve done to themselves…. I hope I’m around long enough to see some of them get their comeuppance…..

“This ain’t no technological breakdown. This is the road to hell.” — Smart Bee

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the second half of the Royal Albert Hall reunion concert by Cream, in 2005, to finish the concert begun in day before yesterday’s post….

Enjoy!….. Hell, this is good enough to drive the depression from the preceding rant out of your head….. Ginger Baker’s drum solo is about 2/3 of the way in…. forgot to note down the exact time, but, hey, getting there is half the fun….

Part 2, Cream: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 2005

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I’ve been following the work of this poet for three years now, since first finding her blog on WordPress….. She is one of those poets whose attraction I can’t explain; her poetry is very randomly structured, seldom rhymes, and is heavily influenced by her feelings, obviously….. But, it is so powerful, I find it is impossible not to read, and feel…. and, I find, almost impossible to describe….

Sometimes, you just know, without being able to say why, or how you know…. Mari’s poetry does that to me consistently…. A link to her site is listed after the poem, if you wish to see more of her work…. I can recommend it highly….. Oh, and, read the About section; she is a very interesting woman, who has lived an interesting life…..

I SWEAR I DID

Lived too long in the dark woods

The gallantry of a mouth
My teeth, crouching, clenching

It is you, your incomparability
At least that is what I tell my soul

Your essential morn
Banishing these little birds

From flying just a bit higher

A dazzlemenent, my imagination

~~ Mari Sanchez Cayuso ~~

http://starsrainsunmoon.com/2014/09/20/i-swear-i-did/#comment-11461

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Ffolkes…. THIS is a pearl….. I worked hard on this one, to make certain it all was correctly arranged…. I may not be the most objective judge in this case, but, I think this is a grand pearl or virtual wisdom…. Y’all are welcome to think whatever pleases you….. you see, the first line allows that sort of thing for us….

“A gentleman can disagree without being disagreeable.” — Rules of a Gentlemen, addendum 1.1

“Where pain predominates, agony can be a valued teacher.” — Frank Herbert

“Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it…. Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 29

“Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt.” — Graham Greene, The Human Factor (1978)

“I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” — E. M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy

How lov’d, how honour’d once avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot;
A heap of dust alone remains of thee:
‘T is all thou art, and all the proud shall be!

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

— To the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, Line 71 —

“To leave this keen encounter of our wits.’ — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Richard III — Act i, Sc. 2

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Having worked on this ahead of time, I find myself in a position to be done in a very timely fashion, while still having time to edit thoroughly for mistakes…. which means, no doubt, you will find them everywhere you look today….. It’s just the way it works for me…. In fact, I’m going to go against my principles today, and NOT edit or proof…. It’s going out “as is”, and y’all will just have to take it that way…. I’m sure you can do it; you’ve had a lot of practice, even if you’ve only been here once or twice…. And, on that note, I shall take my leave…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. stay alert, & don’t let the Asininnies getcha…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

“The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.”

À bientôt, mon cherí.

Perhaps he’ll wait for the proper moment….

Posted on September 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Whenever a thing changes and alters its nature, at that moment comes the death of what it was before.”

~~ Lucretius ~~

What you see above is a digital map, with colors added to provide clues as to the composition of the surface it represents… The surface in question is located on an asteroid, orbiting around the sun, off in another part of our solar system, in an orbit that will take it close to the sun in the next few months, before sending it out and away again, in its long elliptical orbit…. It’s name, given in hopes it will give us the same sort of history-changing data as the original bearer of the name, is the Rosetta asteroid, as in the Rosetta Stone….

The European Space Agency, nearly, or, perhaps, even more than a year ago, launched an unmanned, automated probe rocket to catch up to the asteroid in its orbit, taking many months to do so, with the intention of establishing itself in orbit around the small planetoid object, to collect data from close by, and to eventually send a small probe, loaded with instruments for collecting samples and performing tests, down to land on the surface, where it will perform various scientific procedures to collect even more data about the asteroid’s composition and structure…

This data will tell us what is made of, how old it is, and many other pieces of information, all of which will advance our understanding of asteroids, and the solar system, in general, and specifically, in much greater detail than we could ever find out by just observing from afar…. In the process, unknown and unacknowledged, except by a very few people who can see the bigger picture, this mission is the first step in what may be the ONLY possible way for our species to survive into the future….

This landing on another piece of real estate in our solar system signals the advent of the true Age of Space for our species, and, with the rapidity of the coming environmental crisis here on Earth, colonizing the asteroids, and/or Mars, or, potentially, the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus, may be our only hope of keeping ANY of us alive…. I hate to be pessimistic, but, as far as I can see, this is not something that is debatable any longer…. our time is coming, and sooner than anyone wants to believe….

Yes, we’ve walked on the Moon, and we may yet also colonize that planetoid, as it is so close to Home…. but, the possibility of not being able to live on the surface of the Earth any longer is a distinct threat to our having any future at all…. We may be too late already to save the Earth from becoming toxic to our lungs and metabolism, not to mention the effects of the rising of the seas on our fresh water supplies, and ability to grow the foods we eat….

Our ONLY hope is, quite possibly, to establish colonies on the nearest bodies we can get to, as fast as we can muster the resources and technology to do so, then, when established as self-supporting, spread from there into the rest of the system…..The material resources are there; the asteroids, many eons ago, were another planet, larger than Earth and Mars, that broke up to form the belt between Mars and Jupiter we see today.

These orbiting chunks of rock, some as large as some of our smaller continents, some as small as dust, are chock full of all the metals, minerals, and substances, including water, in the form of ice, we would conceivably need to keep civilization functioning (Saturn’s rings, for example, are supposedly made of ice..) Power is more than plentiful, in the form of sunlight, as well as nuclear fission (much safer to produce and handle in the vastness of space), or, nuclear fusion, if and when we discover its secrets, as well as the chemicals needed for rocket fuels, all are to be found, relatively easily, in the asteroids….

So, the map above, a digital image made from composites taken AT THE SITE, represents the first exploration into our solar system, beyond the Earth/Moon/Mars neighborhood, with the specific intent to explore the possible uses of the rest of the solar system in saving, and continuing human existence…. as such, it is much more significant, and important, than many people are aware of…. and, less aware than they NEED to be, if they want to secure a place in that future….

Unless, of course, y’all hang around here, where, you can be sure, I’ll be keeping a weather eye on all of it, and will let y’all know how the countdown is progressing, whether it means counting down to the time when Earth is no longer able to serve as our Home, or counting the time until we will need to be gone elsewhere, if we wish to make a new Home, in Space…. at all…… Count on that, for sure….

Gosh, look Ma! It’s an intro! Why, so it is Bubba! Let’s tell gigoid, so he can….. Never mind, I’ve got it…. Hold on, ffolkes…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Any certainty is a delusion.” — Smart Bee, with gigoid’s full agreement

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On a normal morning, I’d use the article below to begin a rant; today, that just isn’t going to happen. The above was done prior to getting up today, without knowing I’d wake up in a world of hurt at 1 AM, again, at 3 AM, with me, exhausted, but, giving up on sleep about a half hour ago…. Add some plumbing issues, first thing, and you’ve got an interesting morning shaping up….. Without descending into whining, let’s just say that this Pearl will be the fastest ever posted, start to finish, and leave it at that, without going any further into why I need to get done so fast…

This article actually is good news, as a Federal Court put aside a conviction of a citizen, because the military had used their technology and ability to hack into PRIVATE computer systems, in the homes of American citizens, justifying it by claiming they were looking for evidence of criminal (collection of child pornography, etc.) activity by naval personnel, and for evidence of terrorist activity, simply because they have a naval base in the state where it took place, to wit: Washington state….

Read the article, it gives a chilling account of how the government, and the military, is spying on its own citizens, without their knowledge, and, even more disturbing, have software already in place that allows them to access any computer, in anyone’s home, as long as it connects to the internet… I hate to say I told you so, but, I did…. they are spying on us, looking right into our homes to find out what we are doing…. because, quite simply, they can, and they feel they have that right, since nobody is stopping them….

This attitude has spread so deeply into the entire government of this nation, now, the president (note, no capital, as that would show more respect than he deserves….) thinks he has the power to wage war, whenever he feels it would politically expedient, such as now….. He wants to be remembered as the president who fought terrorism…. when what he is, is the president who pulled the covers off the charade being carried out by all of our branches of government, of turning this country, officially, and permanently, into the oligarchy it has actually been for many years…. Now, they aren’t even bothering to hide their disdain, and complete dominance of the American public…

I hurt, so, it’s natural to rant… but, it hurts so much, both physically, and emotionally, I can’t do it any more today…. This article makes note of a hopeful sign, but, also signals the advent of a time when the rich, powerful assholes in charge of the world’s governments are not going to bother to hide their control much longer…. Mark my words, they are going to have to assume tighter control soon, or the possibilities for revolution offered by the Internet will cause them to have to fight out in the open to maintain their position…. and, unfortunately, except in this country, THEY have most of the weapons in the world, and, if recent history is any indication, they won’t hesitate to use them on their own people…. witness Ferguson….

Enough, read, and weep…. then, I’d suggest you do what I plan to do, which is to stock up on ammunition, for ALL the weapons I possess…. I’ll add a few pearls afterward, to help soothe the angst that surely will follow….

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/09/12/porn-conviction-tossed-over-militarys-surveillance-role/?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

Mostly, the following ended up being stuff that our Beloved Ruling Class would believe, or, describes them, or is something one or more of them has actually stated at one time or another… or, in a couple of cases, shows what they would have said, if they were in the habit of telling the truth…..

“Why bother building any more nuclear warheads until we use the ones we have?” — overheard at the lunchroom mess in the Pentagon

“The Bible is an opiate to keep the beasts of burden patient.” — Pope Leo X

“The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.” — Sophocles

“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.” — Mark Twain

“After he got good at school boards, he finished up by making Congress.”– Mark Twain (found later, in his notes, as originally intended as part of the previous quote…) (Okay, I made it up…. if he’d thought of it, he would have….)

“It is our duty to make the best of our misfortunes, and not to suffer passion to interfere with our interest and public good.” — George Washington

“How dieth the wise man? As the fool.” — Smart Bee

Quick after-note: Look at the somewhat out-of-place-with-the-others quote by Georgie W., our first president. In response, I have two short questions…. First, can you think of a single national-level elected official in this country who could, or would make such a statement? I don’t think I have to answer that; you can do it yourself to find the only response, to wit: no way. Second, what the fuck happened?….. Where did they go wrong? Okay, that’s three, so, we’ll just go on, leaving this to fester….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, for reasons given, y’all will have to have one of mine, for the simple sake of speed…. I do hope you enjoy it…. Here is one I wrote on a morning much like this one, about three years ago….

Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists, again, upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following pearl is an odd one, and I’m not sure exactly what point SB, or my subconscious was trying to make…. but, it’s not bad, if you look at it with the thought in mind, it is merely a series of comments on life, without expecting any of them to actually mean much in terms of how to live life, or what to expect from it…. It just sort of says, “Here, look at this for a minute… interesting, eh?”

Hey, they can’t ALL be perfect necklaces made up of gorgeously matched gems; some of them are the artificially induced sort of pearls, which, while beautiful in their way, and of value, when viewed with proper appreciation, are not going to have the same effect as the more compelling sort…. which, if you think about it, is just like life itself…. maybe they’re deeper than they seem…. Whatever, they work, so, here they are….

INTRODUCTION, n. A social ceremony invented by the devil for the gratification of his servants and the plaguing of his enemies. The introduction attains its most malevolent development in this century, being, indeed, closely related to our political system. Every American being the equal of every other American, it follows that everybody has the right to know everybody else, which implies the right to introduce without request or permission. The Declaration of Independence should have read thus:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, and the right to make that of another miserable by thrusting upon him an incalculable quantity of acquaintances; liberty, particularly the liberty to introduce persons to one another without first ascertaining if they are not already acquainted as enemies; and the pursuit of another’s happiness with a running pack of strangers.”

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“While my BRAINPAN is being refused service in BURGER KING, Jesuit priests are DATING CAREER DIPLOMATS!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“The emperor has no clothes.” — Michael, my former neighbor’s “odd” son, pointing at the POTUS (Obama, at the time….) on TV…. (It isn’t my label in that description…. Micheal, about 7 years old, is considered a “problem” child in school, for two of his behaviors they can’t understand…. First, he has little impulse control, and whatever he sees, or thinks, or does, or. or… he tells the nearest person about it, whether he knows them or not…Second, he is considered different because he “sees” things other people don’t, and can’t…. Some are of things far away, and patently outside his experience, that, somehow, always turn out to be true visions of future events, or just stuff he shouldn’t be aware of, logically, as it happened elsewhere in the world, a week after he shared it…. Spooky, but, damn fascinating, isn’t it? People are strange…. thank goodness…)

“Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.” — Jerry Garcia (1942-1995), Musician, the Grateful Dead

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 7/16/10

“For the record, pot, like the “Reader’s Digest”, is not necessarily habit-forming, but both can lead to hard-core addiction: heroin, in one case, abridged bad books in the other. Either way you look at it, a withdrawal from a meaningful life.” — Mordecai Richler, “Going Home Again”

“It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.” — Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

For the life of me, I can’t do it…. Moreover, I’m going to ask y’all not to try, either, as it’s given me a headache just trying to follow that path…. The above pearl’s meaning, or directed train of thought(s), is, as far as I can figure out, completely inscrutable to the human mind, or, mine, anyway… and my subconscious ain’t talkin’, more’s the pity. Good thing it’s over…. and, please, don’t go back & read it again…. Once was probably enough for this one…. I guess it IS cute, though, with a smirk or two in it, in spots….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“As I grow older I find I don’t have to avoid temptation any longer–now temptation avoids me.” — not attributed in SB…. however, I can testify….

“The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.” — Albert Einstein

“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.” — Oscar Wilde

Well, ffolkes, I’ve done all the damage I can do for one day, especially today…. I’m outta here to go drug myself into insensibility…. Provided I wake up by then, I’ll see y’all tomorrow…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Sacre bleu! Houp la! À bientôt, mon petite cherí….

Bust it up, boys! It’s all gotta go!….

Posted on September 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hopes for the human condition is a fool.”

— Albert Camus

It’s really too bad I’m so late today; getting the little bit of extra sleep always does me good, but, then, upon arising, I must deal with the White Rabbit syndrome, which always afflicts me on these mornings…. My sense of duty is so strong, even letting myself get some extra Z’s will cause my inner critic to sound off, trying to flip me over into guilt, just because I had a tough day yesterday, and paid the price in sleep….. Oh well, nothing much I can do about either end of that, so, we’ll just pretend it isn’t happening at all, and go on to bigger & better things….. provided, of course, we can find anything like that around here….

It is now the usual time I post, and I’m just getting started; haven’t even been in to complete the day’s routines that come prior to starting. I hate to break routine like this, but, my skeleton insisted, so, what is done is done…. However, since I am late, I’ll try to keep this intro out of the usual ranting mode I fall into…. It shouldn’t be too hard, my mind is relatively blank this morning, anyway…. In fact, it’s so empty, maybe I’ll just forgo any sort of intro at all, and…. no, wait, too late, we’re already this far in…. Everything else would fall over in a heap, if I leave this right now…. gotta remember those weight-bearing walls stuff; the intro does more than just decorate the top of the page, y’know….

I realized, while completing some of this routine, I feel as if my life is on a cusp, that the decisions and directions I choose now will lead to a new, and important time in my life, and have been feeling so for some time now…. I’m not sure exactly what the feeling means, in terms of how to react, but, I know that caution is called for; I’m old enough to be a little leery of how snap decisions can affect us later in our lives…. But, I’ve always been one who tries to live like a tiger, who explores the world without fear, rather than a turtle, who remains whole, and alive, by pulling in their head, and ignoring the world, when danger threatens….

That said, I’m looking forward to the future, which, given my age, my understanding of reality, and my absolute agreement with what Camus said in today’s opening lines, is somewhat of a surprise…. There isn’t a lot of good news out there regarding our future; I suppose that goes to show, with us humans, our own little slice of reality is what concerns us the most, and, in the final analysis, the world’s events are less important to us, than those that affect us directly…..

That, my friends, is human nature, which, though we cannot change it to any real extent, we can learn to live with it, and adjust the way we allow that to control our decisions…. Right action doesn’t always, in fact, seldom, run parallel to what is true in reality; often, we must act in ways that go against the grain, if only to maintain our own dignity, and self-respect…

All of that being said, to little purpose beyond organizing my own thoughts, I see we’ve again come far enough to call this an intro, and get on with the rest of the daily mess…. I’m going to show some unusual flexibility in this regard, and go along with that assessment, thus freeing us to get on with it, such as we may…. Since we are in the exact position needed for this extraction, I’ll just throw this switch right here, and we’ll be gone, onward….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Wherever I go, there I am, Pooh mused.” — Found in Smart Bee, unattributed; possibly from “The Tao of Pooh”, in which we see Pooh as a metaphorical manifestation of the concept of the Uncarved Block, an elemental source of truth through simplicity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“If you’re a circus clown, and you have a dog that you use in your act, I don’t think it’s a good idea to also dress the dog up like a clown, because people
see that and they think, “Forgive me, but that’s just too much.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/michael-stipe-talks-freedom-towers-dark-nationalism-on-9-11-anniversary-20140911?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=091214_1601&utm_medium=email&email=alphagigoid@gmail.com

“The Freedom Tower was meant to inspire patriotism and instead embodies the darker sides of nationalism,” Stipe wrote. “The 9/11 attacks and the Bush administration’s response, buoyed by the media, and our shock at having finally been direct victims of terrorism, paved the way for a whole new take on ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ There was no longer any need to explain or publicly debate militaristic power, or the police state mindset. To do so was to be the opposite of a patriot.” — Michael Stipe, REM frontman, and NYC resident, who, on 9/11, lived just a few blocks from Ground Zero….

My first impression, upon reading the first few paragraphs of this article in Rolling Stone, was one of dejá vu, for every single thing Mr. Stipe is quoted as saying were thoughts that went through my head, at the time of which he is speaking, ie. the after-effects, and after-events of that day’s infamy….. He, too, as I do, holds the media at fault for egregiously fanning the flames of ignorance and fear, labeling all those who attempted to formulate a reasoned response to any, or all of it as being unpatriotic, even, treasonous….

The whole “French” thing that happened soon after the attacks, when France showed a moment of rationality before committing to war, is a perfect example of how both the media and the government were complicit in making things worse than they already were, deliberately using this to modify pubic opinion, harping on the public’s fear and anger, thus manipulating them into adopting the attitudes they needed, in order to accomplish their goals…. which is, as is patently obvious, the tens of BILLIONS of dollars that have, since that time, poured into the coffers of the arms dealers, all over the world…..

If anyone out there believes that isn’t true, well, ffolkes, come on down & say so; make sure you bring some evidence ffolkes can see, and feel, and touch…. In short, REAL evidence, not opinions… These are opinions, backed by such evidence, which can be found in any news distribution site…. I predict nobody will do so, because, as they know, there is no evidence to support their position….

In the 13 years since that day, the only people in the world who have benefited, in any way, from any of the subsequent events in the world, have been those who make munitions, arms, and the other equipment/tools necessary to the waging of a modern war…. Everybody else is in worse shape, and we are ALL that much closer to the END GAME, coming in a much nearer future than anyone will admit, the day when Mama Gaia comes to collect the bill for our foolishness, having previously ignored all her warnings of our impending EVICTION from Earth….

Every act taken by this government, along with every other government around the world, along with the media, and any other of those who ostensibly are the leaders, the movers and shakers of society, since 9/11/01, has moved the date of our eviction closer, until now, it is so close, people are having to actively adopt positions of complete denial, in order to maintain their focus on the living their lives, so they too, can be one of the rich elite, who, in spite of what they believe, are also going to die, right along with the rest of us….

Okay, now that I’ve depressed myself, and anyone who read that…. let’s have a few pearls, to try to shake off the blues…. or, to at least, learn how to sing them with feeling…. Okay, I know what should do the trick…. All it will take is to set a specific parameter, and we’ll see some gems, that may even be pretty enough to take our minds off the coming horrors, as people begin to realize just what we’ve done to ourselves…. The “mash up” as I believe the Brits call it, that is coming to ALL of us here on Earth, is going to be ugly, and harsh, and no fun, at all…. Sorry, ffolkes, but, the evidence is all there, and, it doesn’t lie…

“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” — Mark Twain

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for good people to remain silent.” — Thomas Jefferson

“No public man can be just a little crooked.” — Herbert Hoover

“I judge people by what is in their hearts–not by the color of their scales.” — overheard in a bar on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.

“In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds – that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.” — Justice Robert H. Jackson

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man except one thing: the last of the human freedoms— to choose one`s own attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Victor Frankl

“It was a JOKE!! Get it?? I was receiving messages from DAVID LETTERMAN!! YOW!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Note: the second quote in the above pearl, from Tom Jefferson, is one I’ve used before; this time it was found as part of an excellent blog post by another blogger, whom I consider a friend, also a published author, thanks to the help of HER (and my) friend, and blogger extraordinaire, Red Dwyer, whom you can find at her own site, below…. Thanks, Lizzie, for the reminder…

You can find that post, a good one, by Lizzie C, here: http://runningnakedwithscissors.com/2014/09/12/slo-patriotism-respect/#comment-11461

Red’s site, where you’ll always find a good post, can be found here: http://mommasmoneymatters.com/heart-vs-mind-4/comment-page-1/#comment-32626

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In keeping with my new policy to seek brevity for these Pearls, and pearls, here is a short, very powerful poem, from a gritty realist from the 20th century, who, as a street poet, is, in my mind, one of the most powerful of social critics we have….

Cause And Effect

the best often die by their own hand
just to get away,
and those left behind
can never quite understand
why anybody
would ever want to
get away
from
them

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While sitting at the computer yesterday, (or. it may have been that Tuesday, back in ’98…. Ah well, no matter….), I brought up Smart Bee, to look for a quote to go with the picture for the day…. SB was in a mood, for sure; if I didn’t know better, I would have thought he’d been watching the public channel of the legislature again, and saw something that upset its sensibilities somehow…. but, the TV is not working, so, it had to be something else….

Regardless of the cause, in a very short burst, the following pearls came sliding out, requiring only organization into the most effective order, which is my job…. That’s done now, so, here they are, for your delectation…. Oh, yeah, I think the target, one of the usual suspects, as well as the parameters used to pick the oysters, will be obvious before too long…. Especially since it’s the same target we aimed for in section one, above….

“Lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions.” — Tacitus (55?-120?)

An Elementary-School student’s comment on politics: Some of our presidents never did much else and are famous only because they became president. — Smart Bee

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” — H.L. Mencken, “Little Book in C major”, 1916

BATTLE, n. A method of untying with the teeth of a political knot that would not yield to the tongue. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“America may be unique in being a country which has leapt from barbarism to decadence without touching civilization.” — John O’Hara

“Giving power and money to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” — P.J. O’Rourke, former Gulf War correspondent, summing up what he learned during two years of research on how our government functions.

“Old men are dangerous; it does not matter to them what is going to happen to the world.” — George Bernard Shaw

On that final note, allow me to remind you the average age of a Senator in the US is…. well, it’s OLD; at least 70, if not higher, I’d wager…. Not only are those in charge of this nation dangerous men, as noted by Shaw, but, as millionaires (every one of them but, I think, two….), they are completely disconnected from the people whose interests they ostensibly serve….

In plain and simple truth, they are old, rich, white men, for the most part, whose only investment is in service to their OWN interests, first, and foremost…. Seriously, ffolkes, anyone who believes differently is clinically delusional, and would do well to think seriously about taking medication to help with that…. They have some now that work fairly well….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Tis fortunate, indeed, most of this was completed prior to getting up today; otherwise I’d have still been here at lunch time…. It’s done, though, and that’s the key point, so, I’m outta here, on a mission to get this posted…. See y’all tomorrow ffolkes, and keep your ears open for possible changes around here, if only in my personal location…. I’m getting itchy feet….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

Sir! Curb your cellulite!….

Posted on September 12, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”

— Muad’dib, from Dune, by Frank Herbert

It was a tough choice, but, I’m sticking with the mouse…. This wee beastie is a Kangaroo mouse. Some photographer captured the image & sent it to the London Daily Yell (Telegraph), where it was included in their series of Weekly Animal Pictures. There are, no doubt, a number of people who, at this point, are thinking to themselves, “Why is he prattling on about a mouse, cute though it may be?” Pay them no mind; they are impatient, and deserve to wait. Instead, listen up….

The quote above, from Dune, was uttered by the character Muad’dib, which, in Fremen, the language of the people who gave him the name, means, approximately “Little old man of the desert” or “Teacher of boys”; it was the Fremen word/name for the type of mouse you see here, a co-denizen of the desert planet, Dune…. They called him that because the creatures were considered by them to be the ultimate survivors, able to thrive on the surface of Dune, in an environment that challenged the adaptability of every creature who lived there…. To survive, Fremen children were taught to emulate the habits of the mice, and to respect them as the teachers they were…

Why am I going with the mouse, rather than the brilliant quote, which would, obviously, make a perfect opening for a sober philosophical discussion of reality, and our manner of regarding it, or any number of related subjects? Easy….. which would YOU rather read? Yet another rant in the intro section, detailing one of the many horribly depressing issues we face as humans in a sick society, or a fluff piece about a terminally cute mouse? See, no-brainer, right? Right….

Now, the only question that remains is how to turn this fluff piece into an intro…. I had a few ideas originally, but, as usual with my planning ahead, it is now useless, as I can’t remember a single one of them…. Plus, the newest issue with my hands is surfacing, causing my left hand to go numb as I type… Oh, thrilling…

Oh, well, another little reminder from my abused body, of my poor decision at age 8, to become skilled at sports, at least as much as learning in classes, thus determining the course of my athletic involvement, which eventually led me into the martial arts…. and, a lifetime of physical activity, much of which stressed my body to its personal limits on a daily basis…. Which is what I am now paying for, in early onset of age-related conditions, and, quite simply, a world of hurt….

Ah well, I have drugs, and more drugs, and a long-time habit of being able to ignore much of the pain, by focusing intensely on whatever my mind is chewing on at the moment….There are times, of course, when the pain is stronger than my focus and will, but, fortunately, they are, thus far, not too frequent….. and, it passes off, eventually… As long as that remains true, I’ll be content to go on as I am, in pain, but, not debilitated to the point it interferes with my wants and desires…. It IS causing a bit of adjustment, and flexibility of planning, but, hey, that’s a piece of cake for a retired executive assistant….

I see now I’ve managed to whine, and meander in my head to a point where we can jump off this bandwagon, and get on with the rest of this mess… I am thinking, as well, it’s probably a good thing, because I can’t see me winding my way to anything particularly gripping by continuing in this vein…. So, I think it’s time to boogie on down…. whatever that means these days…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”

— The Litany Against Fear, a Bene-Gesserit lesson, from Dune, by Frank Herbert

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth.” — Socrates (470?-399 B.C.)

Yesterday, I found quite a lot of material about which I would normally rant; in keeping with my new policy, instead, I’ve gathered some of the links to the articles that stimulated either my outrage, my sorrow, my pity, or whatever rantable material was found… Think of this as, sort of, a RSS feed, without having to set up any connections…. and with parameters that are only known to my subconscious mind…. Trust me, it’ll be better than a rant, even IF I end up having to throw in a comment or two, as is my wont with this type of pearl…. I’m also working on avoiding typos, which have been annoying me no end of late….

For now, forget all that, just read, and think, and, if necessary, or just desired, feel free to comment on any of them… I’ll get to a response within a few hours or so, hopefully; and, always, eventually…. Enjoy!….

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/towards-internet-nation

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/senators-and-other-experts-appeals-court-nsas-phone-records-program-massive

At the time of the inclusion of the following list in this pearl, these were the most popular stories being read by the SFGATE readers on 8/11/2014 at their home page, at http://www.sfgate.com/….. where, if you like, you can find all of the links to the stories in the list…. It’s just a bit pathetic, wouldn’t you agree, in re: what the subject matter, as the headlines denote, implies about the taste, and the intelligence, of the average readers on the site? I’d say that is patently obvious, without my usual dose of doubt, but, then, we all know I’m a cynic…. This list, though, is pretty compelling evidence, to my mind….

    49ers suspend announcer Ted Robinson two games for…
    ‘Scarf Guy’ steals show at Apple keynote
    Bay Area boasts top counties in California
    What was that mystery mega-yacht in San Francisco Bay?
    Frank Gore and Bruce Miller believe running game can improve
    Best and worst of New York Fashion Week
    La Taqueria in San Francisco named America’s Best Burrito

Below, I’ve placed a trio of the more “serious” pieces of journalism than those on the list, from the same site, which show well the prejudices and flaws in the media moguls who run the site; they always take a very obvious company line when talking about any political or foreign policy subjects, parroting and supporting whatever the administration is trying to get the public to believe….

This site also tends to get into the old “yellow journalism” sensationalism crap, with headlines screaming of danger from this, that, or the other, labeling them with hyperbolic adjectives, screaming of extreme dangers, only to read the actual statements made, and learn it’s no big deal at all, and is unlikely to cause any real problems… Apparently, though, the SFGATE news director felt that wouldn’t draw any readers, so they “pumped it up” so it could create feelings of panic in the gullible…. The link to which I refer is the first one; check it out, and realize, if you will, this sort of thing happens all the time, everywhere, whenever they feel they can get away with it….

www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Scientists-Extreme-solar-storm-heading-to-Earth-5746629.php

There…. Do you see what it says on the link? “Scientists: Extreme solar storm heading to Earth” Once you’ve clicked over to the article, the following excerpt is what you will find, after a couple of paragraphs of basic information stretching….

“New calculations from satellite data show that the worst of the energetic particles streaming from the sun likely will go north or above Earth this time, Berger said late Wednesday…..So while the power grid may see fluctuations because the storm will cause changes in Earth’s magnetic field, it won’t knock power systems off line, Berger said. It may cause slight disturbances in satellites and radio transmissions but nothing major…..”We’re not scared of this one,” Berger said.”

Did you catch that? Headline: reason for panic trumpeted… and, the supporting quote? “We’re not scared of this one,” Berger said. ‘

Brilliant, eh?

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Ferguson-reforms-met-with-rancor-at-city-meeting-5745305.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Changes-surround-9-11-anniversary-commemoration-5747443.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

I often find it instructive to compare the news coverage by the media from different countries; my favorite site to visit overseas is the UK Guardian, which is the agency responsible for publishing the revelations regarding spying by the NSA, leaked to them by the patriot, Edward Snowden, to bring the illegal activities out into the public arena…. Below are two links, which cover two of the subjects from above…

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/10/nipplegate-dethroned-net-neutrality-fcc-public-comments

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/ferguson-courts-system-fines-residents-council

Differences found? Yes, a few, just on the surface… In the Guardian, there were four links on the front page to stories connected to the Net Neutrality issue, of which this link was one. There were two other articles, and one op/ed piece on that one subject IN A FOREIGN NEWSPAPER!…. On SFGATE, there was one fluff piece on it…. EFF is one of the organizations leading the legal battle against the corporations in that battle, so, they are very involved in that, and many other areas involving computers and the internet….

Another difference is in the 911 coverage; the American article is emotionally manipulative, and attempts to re-establish the fear generated by the original act, by, in the same sentence, the first one in the article, by reporting the celebration in NYC, then, at once, adding in a mention of the newest terrorist threats, from the newest acronym for a terrorist group, ISIL, and our president’s intention to intensify the illegal bombing in Syria, ostensibly as part of his stated campaign to, well, essentially, kill them all…. thereby, as noted, parroting the administration’s talking points and lies…. The Guardian’s article takes an entirely different tone and approach to the very same subject….

Also, the front page story on SFGATE, about the non-existent solar flare danger, was nowhere to be found on the UK site; apparently, it wasn’t important enough to print, as there wasn’t any danger involved, or, anything out of the ordinary to report….

Okay, so it turned into a rant anyway…. I won’t say, sue me, because, damn it, somebody would take that personally, and try to do so…. but, otherwise, all I can say is too bad, so sad. You’re all done now, anyway, so quit complaining, and just go read the poem, okay?

“And don’t think any more. I do the thinking around here.” — Sark

One last word, that came to me… well, later… but, in spite of what some may think, it fits with the overall conclusions to be made from the above diatribe…. plus, it’s such an appropriate indictment of today’s culture, of cruelly, and dangerously, asinine inanity that characterizes modern life in this country, from a historical sense, if no other, I had to throw it out here… I’m just crazy that way, I suppose…

“The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in 13 states in the course of 11 years, is but one for each state in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), in letter to James Madison, 20 December 1787

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s a day….. I’m not sure, at this point, that I would like to commit myself further than that…. Such being the case, it is clearly best if I use a poem of my own, to keep from having anyone else’s reputation tarnished by association…. I’ll see if I can find one that either fits, or will give a break to your sensibilities, which are doubtlessly being given a workout today…. Enjoy, please…. Oh, technical note: reading this in a Missouri accent helps the comprehension level, as well as making it sound more genuine, more true-to-life…. Well, I think so…. and, I wrote it, so, you might show a bit of respect for my feelings on my own blog…. Now, I’m hurt…. just kidding, enjoy the poem…

Ah Ain’t Sho, but Mebbe So….

Fried eggs got nuthin’ on me
Ah’m not even sure of mah name,
or how Ah come to be;
no idea from where Ah came.

Ah does like a mystery tho’,
puzzlin’ things out so’s Ah knows,
good from bad fo sho,
Ah sho don’t want no rock pillows.

If’n Ah cain’t figure out what’s best,
Ah just falls back on mah Daddy’s words,
seems he knowed just whut’d stand the test,
‘n how to gentle the scaredest birds.

‘Course, he’d lived a good long time,
‘n had lots of stuff go on by;
Went to a war, n’ lost a piece or two,
never once used it fer an alibi.

He tol’ me once Ah’d best learn to learn,
school’s only cool if ya ain’t already a fool.
Yer own good measure you can earn,
by startin’ yer learnin’ with the Golden Rule.

Always seemed to me as Ah growed up,
he mostly only spoke if it wuz true,
‘n by doin’ that clued me to what’s up,
kept me from stuff that’d a made me blue.

Without ever sayin’ the word itself,
Ah learned ’bout honor, ‘n helpin’ others
not some fake stuff from some shelf,
but, knowin’ whut’s right, ‘n that we’re all brothers.

Ah’ve been around long enough now, Ah think
to get around the block at least two times.
I s’pose long as my head don’t shrink
Ah’ll keep on doin’ right, ‘n makin’ these rhymes…..

~~ gigoid ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SATAN, n. One of the Creator’s lamentable mistakes, repented in sashcloth and axes. Being instated as an archangel, Satan made himself multifariously objectionable and was finally expelled from Heaven. Halfway in his descent he paused, bent his head in thought a moment and at last went back.

“There is one favor that I should like to ask,” said he.
“Name it.”
“Man, I understand, is about to be created. He will need laws.”
“What, wretch! you his appointed adversary, charged from the dawn of eternity with hatred of his soul — you ask for the right to make his laws?”
“Pardon; what I have to ask is that he be permitted to make them himself.”

It was so ordered.

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

While lamenting the necessity, I must acknowledge, and, take advantage of this opportunity to state the obvious, in light of the above entry from Bierce’s masterpiece, to wit:

And, the rest is history…..

Sorry, couldn’t resist…. it isn’t often such a perfect opening for a pun…. Since this section is now useless for anything else, I’ll just throw together a pearl, with the key word, with qualifier, “*fun*”, which should give us the results I’m seeking, after such a shameful start…. Besides, count your blessings; with that opening, I COULD have easily fallen into a religirant, but, refrained, to, no doubt, your immense relief… Mine, too, if you want to know the truth, and, since you’re here at ECR, I’m assuming you do, or, if not, can take it anyway….

Basta! Abondanza! Have fun, in any and/or all its conjugations, definitions, adjectival or adverbial status changes, stages, and permutations….. Y’all should be able to find something to enjoy from that list….

“When choosing between two evils I always like to take the one I’ve never tried before.” — Mae West, in “Klondike Annie” 1936

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams” — Willy Wonka, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”

“I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.’ — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Each generation has its sages. Ancient Greece had Socrates. We have bumper stickers.” — Smart Bee, chiming right in….

“Immorality: The morality of those who are having a better time.” — H. L. Mencken

“This is the Nineties, Bubba, and there is no such thing as Paranoia. It’s all true.” — Hunter S Thompson

“If nothing went wrong today, you’re probably dead.” — Murphy’s Last Law

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am, patently, a Bozo. This we know. I am, also, done. Go figure…. And, in the interests of practicing the promised brevity, I’ll now bid thee adieu for another day, with the caveat, warning, and disclaimer, as required by law, to wit: see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

Polly frigging HATES crackers!…..

Posted on September 6, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“As great scientists have said

and as all children know,

it is above all by the imagination

that we achieve

perception, and compassion, and hope.”

— Ursula K. LeGuin

On some occasions in the past, it has been the habit on this blog, here at the beginning, to engage in either fictional, or personal, or public subjects, in order to fulfill the inherent function of an introductory passage, to wit: provide a from here to there, with here being the space to be filled after the word, “Ffolkes,”, and there being our first section, regardless of what might, or might not, be in that segment…. It sounds simple, but, as I’ve found in the past 3+ years, it isn’t as easy as it sounds, or looks, or IS…. and, GOD! I love my magic cream!!!

Having thus removed all the possibly advantageous trust and belief in the seriousness we had so engagingly presented as our first offering today, with one short expression, we see the meaning, and relevance of the old proverb, “The reputation built up over years may be destroyed in the blink of an eye.” So much for literary plot devices, eh? There I was, setting up a rather nice, simple discussion on the process of writing this, or any, blog, when the pain in my shoulder got so intense, I paused to apply some magic cream; within seconds, the pain was receding, and my fingers took over my brain in celebration, again proving the truth of another old saw, “Never let a Bozo shine your shoes!”…..

Well, perhaps that wasn’t the exact wording of the one you heard, but, you get the picture, I’m sure…. We are all Bozos on this bus, (thank you, Firesign Theater…), but, our backgrounds may vary, according to the mental outlook of each one’s parental units, and what we hear as we watch our noses grow, is that every Bozo has his own color nose, so, tolerance should be our first watchword, right after the words, ‘rubber ducks’…. It’s all in the manual, in case you’ve forgotten those first, bright days in Bozo School, otherwise known as Brooklyn….

Okay….

Well, that was interesting, though somewhat confusing, I’ll bet, for the reader. Hell, I’M confused, and I wrote it…. For the life of me, finding word to put here at the front, at least for this morning, has been an exercise in futility, if not downright suicidally depressive; nothing came into my head that would work, even after the infusion of some Mozart with my coffee… Hence, the semi-existential treatise you see above, with no actual connection to reality, or even, for that matter, this blog…. but, on short notice, which is only kind I get, it’s the best I could come up with…. and, apparently, it’s good enough….

Look, over there…. see that? Yep, it’s a rather aggressive looking #4 emergency method, and it’s looking like it wants to charge…. and, wouldn’t you know it, we’re without our charge machine, so we can’t run any, even a MasterCard/Visa, much less the one most of them carry, American Express…. when we got the new card reader, we got rid of all the old paper slips to use as backups…. Man, they get pretty riled when they aren’t allowed to charge…. Maybe we should just,…. wait. Look out, here it comes! Hold on!….. BLAM!!!….. Okay, it’s all good now, it’s been tranquilized…

Whew, just in time, too…. If we hang around this intro section any longer, we’re going to see our insurance rates go up again, so, I’m using this #4, even if it IS unconscious, to get us out of here…. You can watch if you want, but, don’t blink, whatever you do….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Thou seest how few be the things, the which if a man has at his command his life flows gently on and is divine.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ii, 5

For those unpracticed at translation, from an English translation of a Greek or Roman philospher’s original words, (said translation usually performed by an over-educated, stuffy, pompous scholar of undetermined age, yet certainly not less than required to initiate calcification of the brain), into a more modern version of English, allow me to express the idea Marcus is stating, in a simpler way, into a more modern speech pattern…. It is an idea which, indeed, can be quite useful in formulating one’s approach to living… I’ll use the most simple, modern format, used by many organizations to teach this lesson…. you may have heard it previously…. The above quote from Marcus, in modern terms, means this:

K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple, Silly, or, as we curmudgeons like to say, to provide the proper degree of motivational anger, Keep It Simple, Stupid/SFB/SF/YI/Einstein, take your pick….. To avoid prosecution for public display of vulgar taste, you can supply your own meanings for the acronyms…. I’ll tell mine to anyone who requests them in the comments, but, will only send them via email…. At least those, since I started using the Tor network, are a secure form of communication….

Now, if I could only learn to DO that…. keep it simple, that is…. SIGH…..

😉

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“A very ancient and fish-like smell.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Tempest — Act ii, Sc. 2

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Lawmaker-calls-for-redirecting-PG-amp-E-s-blast-5736844.php

Want to feel enraged, disgusted, and spiritually soiled? If this article doesn’t do it, nothing will… I felt it immediately, that outrageous sense of entitlement displayed by the big corporations, such as PG&E, or, any modern corporation large enough to spawn a bureaucracy, in support of their oligarchy that is modern society….

These are those companies, and, to a great extent, governments, who exist in this world, according to the evidence of their actions, and their words, for the sole purpose of continuing their own existence, with the caveat implied, or, in this case, expressly stated aloud, that, what they do is so important, they deserve to be allowed to do that HOWEVER they please, because they are ENTITLED to be above the laws that regulate the rest of society, and, to make as much money at it as is possible, simply because the function they serve is one society cannot do without. The subtext, and implied threat, is the expressed intimation that, if the public, the common man, wishes to maintain a quality of living that includes shelter, electricity, heat, and water…. four things that are essential to every individual alive, then, those who control those items MUST be allowed to have free rein, without suffering the indignity of being questioned about their methods, or their performance….

PG&E is one of the largest energy sellers on the market, as large as any other in the entire world… Mostly larger, in at least one respect; there are other companies to rival their size, but, few of those are as focused in one area of the energy market as this particular behemoth, required to cover several of the parts of the energy grid that need the maximum available power at all times…. Nor, by any standards, is there one that has been LESS regulated, over the entire time since the early twentieth century, when the company saw its beginning as the major public supplier of gas and electricity to much of the western half of the US…. For that entire time, they have pretty much had things completely their way, as they have built what used to be called a practical monopoly for the products and services in which they deal….

For the last hundred years or so, they have been allowed to charge as much as they want for their energy, in order to maintain a certain profit for their “shareholders”…. not for the public, whom they serve, but for the few who own their stock…. Along with that, as evidence now shows, not only have most of their costs for doing business been passed along to their customers, for all these years, billed as “improved services”, thus increasing their profit each year, but, they NEVER ACTUALLY SPENT ANY MONEY ON IMPROVEMENTS, AND THEN LIED ABOUT IT TO THE PUBLIC, hiding their lack of safety upgrades to lines and equipment, and their lack of concern for improving services, deliberately, KNOWING they were increasing risk to the public, for the sake of increased profits….

But, according to their lawyers, they aren’t receiving, and I quote now from the above article, “the credit they deserve,…” for the money they have recently spent on improvements, a mere couple of billion dollars worth, compared to the 75 YEARS of not spending ANYTHING, for what the public now knows are improvements LEGALLY REQUIRED BY LAW….. which, I might add, they only paid, to perform the improvements due decades ago, AFTER they were caught, a couple years ago, when an unsafe line, ( a line typical of MOST of what they have in place. due to their decades of cheating, and overcharging the public), blew up, due to flaws they already knew about, but, had not fixed…. a blast that KILLED eight innocent people, injuring dozens more, while destroying most of an entire block of individual homes….

According to these same lawyers, who belong to the corporate slugs at the huge bureaucracy that is PG&E, the arrogant assholes who run the company not only want us to give them a little slack, (direct quote: “They deserve more credit for the money they’ve already spent…”) for ponying up a FRACTION of their profits, AFTER they were caught red-handed lying about what they’ve been doing for 50 years, but, they have the damn gall to want us to believe they’ve, first, actually MADE the improvements they SAY they’ve made, in spite of having lied about that very thing for over 50 years, and, second, to give them a break, and let the money they just spent count toward their fines….. Next, they’ll tell us they’re raising prices again, to be able to pay for these fines they’re so unjustly being held accountable for….

Now, later today, I also read that there is one politician, already, who wants the money from the tiny little fine amount, (a mere $1.45 billion, a drop in the bucket to this huge money machine….) which, by law, is suppose to go into the State’s general fund, for the general benefit of the people of the state…. Of course, politicians believe it is their money, too…. but, this one politico, no doubt a PG&E supporter, with a number of large plants and utility facilities in his district, meaning a lot of voters work for the company, says the money should be used to make even more safety improvements, which will supposedly, somehow, help make up for the years of not getting those upgrades.

I don’t suppose he even stopped to consider that this act gives the fines right back to PG&E, to use, allegedly, for improvements…. It occurs to me, the company is the one who decides that the work is done, or not, and when, and where…. because, hey, they’re the ones who know, right? But, who’s to say they’re telling us the truth about what is needed? They’ve got a long history of lying about that very thing, already…. What guarantee would there be that this money would actually be spent for that? Is someone going to stand over their shoulder, to see that it goes where it should? Would any corporation allow that sort of oversight, especially one who believes it holds a monopoly, and thus, a stranglehold on society? One who already has lied to the public, cheated them with overcharging, for services and work that was never done, for decades? Get a grip, ffolkes….

Now, do you believe me? Now can you see how ubiquitous, and dangerous, is the sense of entitlement held by all these corporate snakes, (and, their flunkies, politicians….) who live to lie, and cheat, and do whatever they must to make more and more money, even if it means placing in danger the lives of millions of innocent people, either by neglect, or design, and then, turning around, and whining about it, as they stall, and appeal, and do all they can to wiggle out from under the weight of any responsibility for their own actions?

These assholes will be the death of us all, ultimately, and, you can be sure, all the way to the door of Hell, these foul, gibbering demons from the nether regions of that address, masquerading as human beings, will be trying to figure their angle, to see if the Devil can be manipulated into some sort of profit making venture…. and, they’ll enjoy it, especially if they can screw somebody else while doing so….

Okay… I’ve run out of steam on this; nobody ever listens, and, if they do, they are either like me, powerless to change it, or, feel the same sort of resigned frustration, causing us all to look the other way, until we can find something to feel better about, or, let time purge it from our awareness, if not our memory…. In closing, here is a short, five-star pearl, with some thoughts on what I’ve related above….

“Only the brave deserve the fair, but only rich, fat, cowardly merchants can afford same.” — Chinese Proverb

“Admit nothing, deny everything, and launch counter-accusations.” — Excerpt from the PG&E manager’s training manual, page 2, on dealing with any request for service from the public, or for handling questions from the media…. Honest, ffolkes it’s right in there…. I’ve seen it….

Our ignorance of history makes us libel our own times. People have always been like this.”” — Flaubert

(S’truth, too…. ain’t it a damn shame? ‘Cept, now, it’s probably too late to even hope for any changes, before we’re all gone….. gigoid)

“In the words of Shankarachaya, “All impossible things can be made possible save the bringing of the fool’s mind to the point of truth.” — Hazrat Inayat Khan (Sufi writer)

(The truth of this is why the quote from Flaubert is so relevant…. and so true….)

“And sometimes the bear eats you.” — Everyone’s feeling of resignation, upon receiving their monthly bill from PG&E

“Please hold. A service representative will annoy you shortly.” — An excerpt from another PG&E manual, this one for phone technicians, with lists of the approved recordings. for frustrating anyone who calls with a question, about anything…. These are the statements that are officially sanctioned by the executive board, as suggested by their legal department….

‘Ere you go, ffolkes….. deal with it. We’re all going to have to, one way or another, very much more shortly than anyone believes, I’m afraid…. I hate to be a cynic, but, ever heard of permafrost?…. Look it up, if you’re in the mood to feel some real, visceral terror for the future of mankind, and all the other animals, and most of the plants & tiny organisms, on this planet….

There MAY be SOME sort of life now extant, that will be able to adapt to what is coming…. but, if so, we don’t know what it may be, because, while smart enough to cause our own demise, and smart enough to actually see it coming…. we don’t seem to be smart enough to do anything about it, or to know exactly what will happen; only that it will, and we can’t stop it…. So, according to all the evidence, we WILL die, and sooner than we ever thought…. I guess it’s what you might call a surprise ending for mostly everybody….

Excerpt from:

The Hollow Men

V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

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After that, only one poet exists for me, other than Teddy E…. Since my need for the soothing properties of a poem is great, and Emily’s poems tend to brevity, we’ll go with a two-fer…. Enjoy, please…. I intend to….

A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!

A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!
Your prayers, oh Passer by!
From such a common ball as this
Might date a Victory!
From marshallings as simple
The flags of nations swang.
Steady—my soul: What issues
Upon thine arrow hang!

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

I died for beauty

I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth – the two are one;
We brethren are,” he said.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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“Some students drink at the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle.” — Brilliant Bee

Some times, when I’m sitting here, as I am now, with more than usual the amount of energy, in a relatively pain-muted state, I’ll do as I am now…. I got an email, advertising the latest Grateful Dead CD release, with a link to listen to one of the live cuts, from a concert on Long Island in 1989, of the song, “Deal”…. so, I clicked over to listen, turning my new speakers up to their not great, but adequate maximum level, take out my ponytail holders, to free my hair (now down to my mid-lower back….), laugh loudly& long, and, then…..

Then, sitting down, I will take a hit, or three, lean back, and begin to rock out in my chair, as much as I can without creating more stunning pain, essentially immersing myself in hedonistic memories of days past, when I was young, actually AT the concert I’m listening to, dancing my ass off with some twenty-something like-minded goddess, with no inhibition or restraint…. I do that, because, all my life, I’ve believed in the above, in gulping down knowledge, and, LIFE in general, in great big bites, refusing to gargle ANY of it, unless it was actually toxic for me to consume….

As Robert Heinlein taught us, via the vehicle of The Notebooks of Lazarus Long,

“Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.”

I first read the Notebooks, or, this part of it, in my early teens…. When I left high school to attend UC Berkeley, in 1968, it was my full intention to do just that…. to take big bites of Life, to savor each one of them, with delight, appreciation, and gratitude….. So, I did, every day from then, until now…. Having also adopted another of Lazarus’ quotes as a life rule, to wit: “No regrets, ever. When the ship lifts, all bills are paid. Life is too short to hold on to the past.”, I have never regretted a single moment of my past…. ANY of it, even the bad parts…. Nothing lasts forever, “but the earth and sky”, as the song says, and it’s true; so, since they, too, shall pass, the bad parts only make the good parts that much sweeter, when they come back around….

I could, conceivably, talk/rant about this one for a long while, as the concept forms a large part of my philosophy of life (See axiom #1, # 2, #3, well, actually, all eight of the axioms have this running through them, in a way….), Peruaosophy…. but, I think I’ve already made the point sufficiently well, that an old-school pearl, with this idea, of “drinking deep of the Empyrean fields”, as the focus of parameters, should suffice to finish the thought, without having to listen to me spout off any longer…. See, I CAN be a nice guy, when I work at it a little…

“Death to all fanatics!” — Bumper Sticker

(Just a small demonstration of “irony”….)

EXISTENCE, n.

    A transient, horrible, fantastic dream,
    Wherein is nothing yet all things do seem:
    From which we’re wakened by a friendly nudge
    Of our bedfellow Death, and cry: “O fudge!”

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“The bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo.” — Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) — Natural History, Book xviii, Sect. 249

I see my life go drifting like a river
From change to change; I have been many things –
A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light
Upon a sword, a fir tree on a hill,
An old slave grinding at a heavy quern,
A king sitting upon a chair of gold –
And all these things were wonderful and great;
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all.
Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow
Lay hidden in that small slate-coloured thing!

— William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid”

“A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly,

science into superstition, and art into pedantry.

Hence University education.”

— George Bernard Shaw —

In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of thee.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Stanzas to Augusta

(Augusta was Lord Byron’s sister…. There are lines, such as these, that solidify my opinion of him as one of the two most passionate masters of metaphor, and, one of the two most insightful poet to ever put pen to paper…. as well as being known as one of the most adept romantic poets to ever wear the name… He wrote incredibly beautiful, deeply insightful, cunning, delicate, yet, powerful poems, in his tragically short life, that still stand as some the finest ever written, and will never be forgotten….)

“Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.” — Lao-Tzu

Ffolkes… this is a very fine, very subtle pearl, deep in metaphor and spiritual feeling, yet, all of the pearls bear good advice for living, or, demonstrate a valuable skill to be learned…. I couldn’t be prouder of Smart Bee, for coming up with such an excellent group of gems, lustrous and shiny….. Plus, bonus round; for the price, it’s an unbeatable bargain….

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For some unknown, and ungodly, reason, the sleep I got yesterday seems to have completely screwed up my system’s routine…. I had so much energy, I was up until after 10 PM, which meant, even with only five or six hours of sleep, I would be a bit late getting up… not a big deal, but, I hate making myself feel rushed, which I do, every time, in spite of the fact there is no deadline, other than my own feeling of wanting to get it done, and posted between 6 and 7 AM…. which, this morning, is well within reach, but, doesn’t feel like it…. go figure…. I guess that much sleep at once is a message my mind, and body, which tend to work together when I’m not watching, a message they don’t like, and refuse to acknowledge….

SIGH…. it’s tough, when your own mind actively works against you… But, forewarned is forearmed, so, I know what has to be done…. which, right now, entails finding just the right note on which to leave you, happy, but wanting more…. and, I think I just found it…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. Keep your shoes shiny, and your nose clean…. it honks louder that way, and the cops will know you care, because of your shoes…. Don’t overthink it, just wave bye-bye now, and go home…

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

All those attending the apocalypse, board here….

Posted on September 5, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go.”

~~ Bertrand Russell ~~

What vivid, beautiful morning glories! (Well, I THINK they’re morning glories; if not, can a gardener tell me what they are? I’m clueless about plant ID’s….) I’m happy with this shot, simple as it is, because of the colors that came through in the final result…. gorgeous plant, it was, and the only pictures I managed to get on that walk, were of it, and its flowers…. Out of the four or six shots I took, (shaky hands, couldn’t get one centered…. I was on my way to the magic cream shop, in dire need of their products….), this one, and a study of the whole plant, which was in a yard next to a store, were lovely enough to use for today, and tomorrow’s Pearl…. sufficient reward for the misery I had to endure to get to the store….

And, you are NOT going to believe this one…. Last night, I slept (yes, slept… Me, gigoid, sleeping…. quite a concept, eh?) for ten hours, straight and solid, with only two awakenings, to take the scheduled opiate…. I feel GREAT! (Well, I’m discounting the hips and shoulder, which are in their standard state, but, a bit of the ol’ magical topical cream, and I’m good to go…. You may have already noticed how my mood is at a level of, oh, I’d say, a good three steps from usual…. I really don’t know what to do with it; I haven’t suffered this much ‘good will toward men’ in ages…. Maybe I should go out tonight, & try my luck at meeting somebody new…. Nah, I’ll just enjoy the glow….

Besides, by 10 AM, if the world’s routine hasn’t altered significantly, my arthritis should be kicking in, and I’ll be back to the steeplechase, running as slowly as I can, chasing after the pain, trying to knock it down far enough to stop, if nothing else, the whimpering, which tend to embarrass me, even though nobody can hear me when I cry out…. SIGH…. It’s been a tough week, if you couldn’t tell….

Enough whining, though, I feel too good to be pessimistic about how long it will last… I’ll just take advantage of the moment, and enjoy feeling relatively normal, at least for a while…. Plus, look, it gave me enough to fill in this space, which means we can use one of the emergency release mechanisms we have in place, to get us out of here, and onward into the rest of today’s mess, er, missive… Whattyathink, eh? Shall we use #4? It IS sitting right there, ready…. Okay, we’ll do that….

Shall we Pearl?

” — I’d love to, but… I have to study for a blood test.” — 79 of 101 Easy Ways To Say NO

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“Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.” — Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”

I’ve been writing a lot recently on this subject; one reason makes itself obvious today, or, more accurately, was demonstrated yesterday, as several stories in the news caught my attention, stories that demonstrate the ubiquitous seriousness of the issue, that of the militarization of the police, with the concomitant result, and motivating factor, of the elimination of the basic rights as covered in the original US Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution…. If you think, even for a moment, that you have all those rights by law, in today’s world, then, ffolkes, and, folks….. y’all just aren’t paying close enough attention to what is happening, right in front of you….

In support of that obviously arguable contention, I offer the following discussion, with two appropriate expressions as a preface:

“No sheath shall hold what finds its home in flesh.” — Proverb

“The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Measure for Measure — Act ii, Sc. 2

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Fast-food-protests-expected-in-push-for-higher-pay-5732532.php

Oh…. I get it now…. We, the citizens, are now allowed to protest, without fear of arrest by overzealous police forces, UNLESS we are “disruptive to traffic”, or refrain from “blocking streets”, as a way to express our grievances, to petition the government for redress of those grievances… Sounds to me like the same line of reasoning used by the large communication companies, such as Verizon, or AT&T, (as well as just about ALL companies these days…. they all saw how well it worked for the big guys, & jumped right on that wagon…), who make it impossible to even SPEAK to an actual live person, to try to address any issues of customer service….

They all say their primary goal is customer satisfaction, or, in the case of the police, the protection of the rights of the public, but, have arranged matters (i.e., passed laws…) that enable them to refuse to speak, or listen to anyone who wishes to obtain any such thing…. Same same attitude, in my book…. They don’t want to talk to us, and they don’t want to listen to any complaints about that, or about anything else…. so, they’ve made it damn near impossible to exercise the right we were allegedly guaranteed by the sacrifices of our ancestors….

“The simple rights, the civil liberties from generations of struggle must not be just fine words for patriotic holidays, words we subvert on weekdays, but living, honored rules of conduct amongst us…I’m glad the American Civil Liberties Union gets indignant, and I hope this will always be so.” — Senator Adlai E. Stevenson

(Obviously, by the evidence of this, and other quotes from the good Senator, and, because I was around to watch the rest of the established incumbent politicians of the era, who were, ostensibly, his peers, deliberately and ruthlessly destroy his credibility, and his reputation, with lies, innuendo, and political skulduggery, thus effectively shutting him up, and preventing him from causing any real harm to them, or their incumbency, it’s clear, to me, and to many others, Adlai was one of the rare exceptions to the established rule….)

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/09/03/black-oakland-firefighter-says-white-cop-held-him-at-gunpoint/?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

According to this one, the officer involved was acting “within policy”…. So, by that standard, it’s okay, policy-wise, to profile, to NOT call for backup, to use intimidation as a method of controlling a situation, and to assume that the officer saying, “Sorry” for being a total asshole, is sufficient reason to ‘overlook’ his behavior from the police’s obviously expert, objective viewpoint….. Right…..

“If our behavior is strict, we do not need fun!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Doesn’t this bother anyone else, but me? Why is it okay for the police to act like this, without any consequences at all for the officer involved, and the department that encourages this sort of asininity? Can ANYONE explain this to me, any way at all? I’m pretty smart, and will be able to understand just about anything that makes any sense, from any objective standpoint, based on a full understanding of the intent of the founders of the Constitution when they created that document, and a pretty extensive knowledge of human nature, so, any sort of evidence will do….

“Pluck out the heart of my mystery.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 2

I’m willing to bet, some serious money, that there is no one who will, or can, respond to those questions, at least, not in any way that will lessen the responsibility for immoral, unethical, and illegal actions of the policeman, and the department that echoes the WRONG attitudes of almost every other force in this country, and all over the world…. I say this because I’ve looked for any such evidence, already, many times, and have yet to find anything to alter the way I look at it, not by the analysis of the available FACTUAL evidence….

Ever since the middle of the nineteenth century, the government of this country, (and, by that, I am including all three branches, which are supposed to balance each other’s powers, thereby protecting us, the People….) has been under the influence and control of corporate interests, which translates as the monied elite, who have, and will protect viciously, all the “legal” rights they now possess, rights to the control of almost ALL the resources available to society…. With this influence, hard-won by the bribing of a major Federal Court judge in the mid-1800’s, some legal rulings were made, rulings that defined corporations as “persons”, with the legal rights of a person, and, more, providing a legal precedent for future flunkies, er, judges to fall back on….

PRECEDENT, n. In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those in the line of his desire. Invention of the precedent elevates the trial-at-law from the low estate of a fortuitous ordeal to the noble attitude of a dirigible arbitrament.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

This opened the door to other rulings, all of which, over the years, based on the original decision, and, all of which, essentially, give more and more of the rights we flesh and blood citizens have to those “corporate persons”, such that, now, corporations not only have MORE rights than any single citizen, composed of mere flesh and blood, but, have extended their control, using the same basic method of bribery, to the other two branches….. They did so in Congress, by convincing that august body to vote itself the right to make laws that were separate from those that were Constitutional, thereby making them not subject to the same restrictions that now define that document…. In other words, they voted themselves the keys to the treasury….

(Some time, if you get a chance, check out the health plan that the members of Congress, and other Federal government elected officials, are set up with when they get elected, along with their retirement plans…. You will be shocked at what they have given themselves over the years, all without even notifying any of the public what was going on…. Most of the American public is not even AWARE that a member of Congress, when they leave that august body, get to keep their health plan (much better than any available to the public, more extensive coverage, and free of any out of pocket cost to them….), AND their congressional salary, now in the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS range….. FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES….. even if only elected to one term…. Pretty good deal they’ve handed themselves, eh, what?….. If you are ANYTHING like me, it will convince you to go buy a gun, and to use it…..)

The Executive Branch, while attempting to maintain the appearance of independence and proper assumption of its Constitutional duty, fell in with those same shadowy corporate snakeheads on Wall Street, and came up with the simple concept of “Executive privilege”, giving themselves the power to make laws, bypassing Congress, and, thus, the people, altogether…. Cute, eh? And, clever, too, for making it all seem as if the White House, Congress, and the Courts, were, and are, all doing their jobs, providing balance to the powers of government…. when, in fact, the people of this country have NO ONE representing their interests, in any level, in any branch of our government….

There are 455 very rich, white men, (with a very few exceptions to that particular description….) who determine the course of life in this country…. add it up yourself. Their average income is over a million dollars…. the average, mind you… Many of them are multi-millionaires, many times over…. What do they know of the lives of the common man? How can anyone believe they would have the same set of interests to pursue, or that the agendas they hold are, in ANY way, concerned with making things better for anyone but themselves….

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” — Mark Twain

As I said, there are a very few exceptions, who, basically, are powerless to change any part of the big picture…. too much money, power, and inertia working against them… Plus, every one of those at that level, who accidentally make it to the national stage, and are those who would work for the people, sincerely and honestly, are always isolated by the rest, to make them completely ineffective…. witness the only moral president of the last century, Jimmy Carter…. from the current crop of Congressmen with any honor at all, I’d say Al Franken comes closest, and he is under massive political assault, by the Republican Party, the Tea Party, AND the Koch Brother’s Super PAC, Citizens United….)

Ah yes, Citizens United…. that famous Supreme Court decision, which makes my contention, about the bought-and-paid for servile indenturing of the Supreme Court, not so very hard to believe, giving, as it did, the very clear message the Court’s belief in the sacred status of corporate personhood, and the inviolability of corporations to do whatever they must to protect and preserve their bottom line, which is the profit they make on all the predatory hoarding of resources, and the control that gives them over society and culture at large…. Anything at all that interferes with smooth flow of money into their coffers is not to be allowed….

There is a bill now in the Senate, awaiting a vote, that, if passed, will do away with the decision by the Court re: corporate donations to political campaigns; it is a Constitutional Amendment, which was the ONLY way to stop the decision from becoming the law of the land. It will prevent the corporations from having completely unlimited power to influence elections, by removing the restrictions they, as corporate persons, to political campaigns, effectively halting the formation and continued existence of Super-PAC’s, such as Citizens United….

You know, the one owned by the Koch brothers, ultra-conservative billionaires, with a sense of entitlement you have to see to believe…. incredible assholes, both of them…. Sorry, just can’t stand people like that, who have no compassion or “fellow-feeling”; in my estimation, they do not deserve to be called human, and, to be honest, I consider them to be a total waste of sperm….

This government, as it now exists, has NOTHING to do with the Constitution that allegedly forms the basis for its existence…. Almost every statement in the Constitution, especially in the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights, is no longer in force, essentially, and we can no longer count those rights as anything but a memory….

The experiment in government started by our founding fathers, who wanted a government that would protect and support the people, not oppress them, as every other government in history has done to its citizenry; once in power, every human being alive seems to fall prey to the urge to put aside all of their compassion, all of their integrity, and all their altruism, whereupon, they begin to make changes, that will ultimately server their ends, which are ONLY concerned with meeting their own needs, not those of the people…. It has happened EVERY TIME….

I challenge ANYONE to find an example, anywhere in the past 5000 years, of a government that demonstrated any appreciable degree of care for the people, ahead of what was important to the ruling class…. Just one will do, because even that will provide hope that it can be done…. but, I’m a pretty well-read guy, and I can’t think, or remember, any government in history who were considered to be any such thing as “compassionate” or that actually made life better for its citizenry….

As one of the Shrubs said one time, “Bring it on….”

I think that’s all…. I cant, at this point, think of anything more to add to this discussion, so, why don’t we give it up now, and move on….

“Sorry, my mind was on edible underwear today.” — Smart Bee, providing gigoid with an excuse for the above….

Whoops! How’d that get in here? Oh, I remember…. After the somber sobriety of the above politirant, I went to look for an appropriate pearl to close with, whereupon I found this, & couldn’t resist…. Okay, here is a proper thought with which to end this piece….

“May you have eyes like a hawk and a spouse with warts.” — Smart Bee, being a smart ass….

Sorry, I’m not taking the rap for that one; it’s on SB…. It just showed up when I pasted the right pearl, I THOUGHT…. THIS is the proper ending I was looking for, when I was so rudely interrupted, by a bloody database!……

“A conqueror is always a lover of peace.” — Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)

~~ from “On war”; copied by Lenin in his notebook, with notation, “Ah, Ah, witty”. ~~

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Whew! Good thing the first half of that rant was already done, or I’d have been there forever this morning…. After that, I need something to cheer me up a little bit…. no, make that a LOT…. I know…. In this mood, some pure, cold, clean, powerful brilliance is just the ticket…. Since none of mine quite fit that bill, this one will do just fine….

Witch Burning

In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.
A thicket of shadows is a poor coat. I inhabit
The wax image of myself, a doll’s body.
Sickness begins here: I am the dartboard for witches.
Only the devil can eat the devil out.
In the month of red leaves I climb to a bed of fire.

It is easy to blame the dark: the mouth of a door,
The cellar’s belly. They’ve blown my sparkler out.
A black-sharded lady keeps me in parrot cage.
What large eyes the dead have!
I am intimate with a hairy spirit.
Smoke wheels from the beak of this empty jar.

If I am a little one, I can do no harm.
If I don’t move about, I’ll knock nothing over. So I said,
Sitting under a potlid, tiny and inert as a rice grain.
They are turning the burners up, ring after ring.
We are full of starch, my small white fellows. We grow.
It hurts at first. The red tongues will teach the truth.

Mother of beetles, only unclench your hand:
I’ll fly through the candle’s mouth like a singeless moth.
Give me back my shape. I am ready to construe the days
I coupled with dust in the shadow of a stone.
My ankles brighten. Brightness ascends my thighs.
I am lost, I am lost, in the robes of all this light.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

“Poetry is the eloquence of truth.” — Joseph Campbell

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Boy…. reading Sylvia is certainly a roller-coaster of an experience, isn’t it? I feel lots better now; all the lingering dregs of angst and resentment at the shenanigans of the BRC, and the rest of the asininnies, have departed, forthwith, leaving me relatively normal, in re: all-around feelings of contentment with life…. Since I’m 63 years old, I know that won’t last forever, or even very long, so, I’m intent on enjoying every minute of it….

Do be, do be, doo….

Okay, that’s enough normal for me…. I’m going to do what I do, which is put together a fresh, random harlequin style pearl, with parameters set at the extreme end of SILLY, right smack up against the backside of INSANITY…. Should be fun!…. Let’s go annoy Smart Bee for a while, okay? Okay! Let’s go!….

“It is a mistake to think of all demons as being exactly alike. Some are short while others are tall; some are yellow, others are blue; some are nasty and others are extremely nasty. Some of the nastiest are quite fast as well. Should you encounter one of these, it is a mistake to think at all. Much more appropriate are such responses as running, screaming, and the very rapid formation of a last will and testament.” — The Teachings of Ebenezum, Vol. IX

“Reality does not exist – yet.” — Smart Bee

“If I kiss you, that is a psychological interaction. On the other hand, if I hit you over the head with a brick, that is also a psychological interaction. The difference is that one is friendly and the other is not so friendly. The crucial point is if you can tell which is which.” — Dolph Sharp, I’m O.K., You’re Not So Hot

“Being normal is driving me crazy.” — Smart Bee (who obviously was listening all those times gigoid was talking to himself…. he thought….)

“The mind is everything,” wrote Proust. No doubt true, when you’re dead from the neck down.” — Edward Abbey

“Fear always springs from ignorance.” — Smart Bee, and, the Bhagavad Gita, paraphrased

“For I never have seen, and never shall see, that the cessation of the evidence of existence is necessarily evidence of the cessation of existence.” — De Morgan (1839-1917)

— Bother! said Pooh,as he rolled over into the wet spot.

(Oops, sorry, that was supposed to go somewhere else…. oh, well, we’re on fun mode, so, I’ll let it stay….)

“The only very marked difference between the average civilized man and the average savage is that the one is gilded and the other is painted.” — Mark Twain

“Before you criticize people, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’ve got a mile-long head start. And you have their shoes.” — The Lion

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.” — ee cummings

“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” — Henry David Thoreau

When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit,
‘Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet;
Nor ever ever shall, until that I die,
For the longer I live the more fool am I.

— “Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy” (1684)

Okay…. I know, I went a bit overboard, again; chalk it up to having so much energy, after my marathon sleep last night…. Bonus: You have, and I have, without realizing it, witnessed the creation of the very first 13-star pearl…. I have no clue as to how it happened, other than forgetting where I was while collecting…. The clipboard appends each quote, but, doesn’t allow me to look at it, to count, before pasting… It doesn’t matter, at all, really, because, in this case, it worked, just fine, which is a word we could easily use to describe this pearl… Without getting overly wordy, or overly long, these 13 ideas present us with some fine entertainment, and a few pokes in the conscience, as well as a good portion of silliness… I like it….

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So much for serendipity and planning…. In spite of the sleep, and, in spite of the plan my unseasonably clear mind came up with this morning, I’m running a little late…. this, even though over half the rant was already done… But, when I sat to go over it, it just got me going again…. Then, the long pearl in section three got going…. Happily, it’s done, and I’m not going to fuss with it…. I will see y’all tomorrow, with who knows what new and exciting ideas, given an entire day of relative clear-mindedness? Not me, certainly, though I’ve got as much chance as anyone of guessing…. But, where would be the fun in that?…. Bye, for now….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

All the king’s horses…. are fat….

Posted on August 6, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Virtuous and vicious every man must be,–
Few in the extreme, but all in the degree.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 231 —

—————————————————————

I live in my own place
have never copied nobody even half,
and at any master who lacks the grace
to laugh at himself — I laugh.

— inscribed over the door to Friedrich Nietzsche’s house —

Ah, the poor wee beastie! She’s gone and made the poor lad into a foolish spectacle, and his dignity is in tatters. It’s funny how in pictures such as this one, the dog’s expression is just way too human for comfort, and may explain why we tend to anthropomorphize…. It takes almost no imagination at all to see the embarrassment the dog feels at being dressed up so ridiculously, or to know that he isn’t at all comfortable playing the fool. Mastiffs, even puppies, have an innate dignity that such nonsense tends to ignore….

I like the quotes that open us up today; they sort of picked themselves, as did the two which end this intro, below…. In fact, those four pearls make a pretty good pearl of their own, with some insightful observations of how mankind deals with reality….. Kind of too bad, because they would have done well in one of the sections that follow, as well as in this one…. Some quotes are just more flexible that way…. in fact, quotes, in many ways, seem to parallel those who write them, in terms of well, everything…. I guess that makes some sort of reasonable sense, as we humans tend to put a lot of ourselves into whatever we touch, or create….

That being said, I’m not sure if what I’m putting into this today is going to make the grade…. It’s certainly well punctuated, and I can find no obvious typographical errors (which doesn’t mean there aren’t any, believe me….), but, doesn’t quite FEEL right…. and, as Apple Corp. has proven, the way something looks, and feels, is important…. and, legally defensible…. Who would have thought, eh? I almost peed my pants from laughing so hard when I heard that Apple had won that lawsuit years ago, where they were able to copyright the “look and feel” of their computers, and defend that copyright in court….

Well, I did laugh, and very hard, but no harder than I was weeping, at the thought of how stupid that was, and how it is obviously an indicator of how strange the world has become…. The fact that they COULD win a lawsuit defending the “look and feel” of a product, of any kind, just tells me how corrupt are the legislators, who make such laws, and the courts, who make the decisions that favor the corporate interests who are paying them….

Oops, did I just accuse the Federal Court System, and the Supreme Court, of corruption at the hands of corporate interests? Why yes, yes I did, and I am not going to back down from that, either, as they have recently given more incontrovertible evidence of that, as the Hobby Lobby decision shows how misogyny and corporate influence are still rampant, even at the top levels…. or, more accurately, I’d say, especially at the top levels….

Justice Sotomayer, perhaps the only judge on that august bench that has a clear view of reality, has already made it clear that she disagrees with most of her peers on the SC bench, and accuses them of having “blind spots”. She stops short of accusing them of actual taking of bribes, but makes it clear she is not happy with them…. In my own less than humble opinion, the Supreme Court is no longer capable of true dispassionate judgment of the law, as they are, most of them, completely under the influence of their corporate and/or political sponsors, and no longer determine their own course of belief…. So, sue me…

I suppose I should stop now, before this introductory rant gets any longer…. I’ve already gone beyond the bounds of tact, or, for that matter, good taste, but, that’s nothing unusual for me. I only hope I didn’t drive anyone off yet…. There is a lot yet to come…. Plus, I am guessing I am going to have to be a bit abrupt now, in order to get us out of here, before it becomes impossible to do so…. In fact, let’s jump right here, okay?….

Shall we Pearl?…. Since we started today with a two-fer, we may as well go with the flow….

“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.” — Albert Camus

“Things don’t change. You change your way of looking, that’s all.” — Carlos Castaneda

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While searching through my archived material, looking for something else, I found the following politireligirant… It is a very long rant, but, I think it keeps within the boundaries of interest well enough to be a worthwhile read, and/or discussion… It’s also still a valid rant, almost a year later, so, the root material that stimulated the rant is, you may be certain, still eating away at the foundations of reality as we know it….

From 11/19/2013:

WARNING! FRESH RANT BELOW: Read it, or not, as you wish…. but, don’t tell me I didn’t warn you…. 😆 (Note from 2014: this is no longer exactly fresh, but, the disclaimer still applies, as well….)

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” — The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 1, 1791

I had thought, when I found this restatement of the First Amendment, to use it as the opening for a politirant. It IS the perfect lead-in to such discussions, as each and every one of the issues addressed in this codicil to the Constitution is under attack, and, in essence, is no longer one of our guaranteed rights…. I’m not crying “foul!” without evidence; the sky actually IS falling, to use an obvious literary reference. So, I suppose I will…. use it to lead in to a politirant, that is…. Let’s take this piece by piece….

Religion in this country IS free to carry on with, as long as the religion is a Christian sect…. Any other group is likely to suffer a lot of obstruction in the pursuit of their religion, both by law, and more significantly, by custom, and the power of peer pressure…. On the State level, as well as locally, laws have been, and are being passed that prevent Muslim women, and men, from wearing certain articles of clothing their faith demands they wear; other religious icons and dogmatic representations have been subjected to legal restriction as well, for many religions…. except Christian…. But, such laws are only the surface of the problem….

There are even Christian churches, or, well, allegedly, or peripherally Christian churches, that are discriminated against by their larger co-conspirators, just because they don’t have the same ideas about what their particular focus of worship is all about…. Just ask anyone from the Mormons… or ask anyone in The Tribe about antisemitism in the twenty-first century, and listen to them list all the various examples one can find, and not just in the news…. Ask just about any Southern Baptist what they think about Catholics, or Jews…. but, be prepared to get spewed upon with some nasty vulgarities…. Then, ask anyone from Texas what they call a Muslim when they aren’t calling them ragheads….

Okay, that’s the first section of the Amendment, on religion…. That’s gone, kaput, no longer in force; from a cultural point of view, it really never was in place, not very strongly…. The Christian sects have always been good at paying lip service to the principles of their dogma and creed, (the ones about tolerance, and compassion for others….). but, they’ve never been terribly good about actually living up to those principles, have they?…. That little episode during the Middle Ages, the one they called The Inquisition, now THAT was a pretty thing, wasn’t it?…. Now, of course, we have the plague of pedophilia, and/or outright bigotry that permeates so many church hierarchies, and not just the Catholics…. Even a simple, even Christ-like soul, such as the current Pope seems to be, won’t have a big effect on that degree of corruption of spirit….

Next is free speech…. Need I even say anything at all about this? How free is our speech, when telling the truth about the illegal activities being perpetrated by the government is looked on as treason? How free is our media, when they won’t print anything that exposes the lies told every day by the government, much less publish the stuff that Eric Snowden had to show? Oh, they enumerate the prevarications in spots; there are fact checking sites, and a lot of folks who claim to call BS on them everywhere…. The lies they tell are so obvious, that much exposure is unavoidable, given the internet, and the scope of modern technology….

But, those sites, articles, and shows that expose the lies don’t get anywhere near the publicity or exposure that the lies get, or the spin on the lies, or anything at all that the pundits and talking heads have to say in defense of their lies…. Hell, much of the time, the response by the government, regarding a particular instance of being caught lying, is handled most effectively by just ignoring it, making no statement at all…. and the media lets them do it! Every time!…. No follow-up outrage, no further mention of the lies told, just silence…. When was the last time we saw a public official actually tried in court for lying to the public?….. Nixon, maybe? Maybe so….

I can think of, at minimum, three instances in the past six years of this administration when huge lies were told, or exposed, and not a single politician or government official has been prosecuted for those lies, up to, and including the President…. This doesn’t even address the lies told by the Republican Party (the “loyal” opposition?….) on a daily basis by that entities representatives…. I’m not going to bother naming them, as all of them were covered extensively in the news, for all the good it did….

Okay, free speech, and freedom of the press, those are pretty much gone, too…. Let’s see, now, what’s next?…. The freedom to peacefully assemble, and petition for redress of grievances…. Have you tried to get a permit to have a protest lately? I understand there are now a bunch of requirements that are necessary to be allowed to assemble anywhere in a public venue, all laws passed on a local level, as a rule, and enforced by police departments with a huge sense of entitlement, legal backing, and guns they aren’t afraid to use on the public….

Those requirements that must now be met before assembling any group for protest in public, requirements which are, if one actually reads this Amendment, completely illegal according to the Constitution, have to do with protecting property, mostly, from the vagaries of mob actions….. The laws were put in place through the efforts (i.e. they spent a lot of money to make sure their politicians voted the “correct” way….) of corporate entities…. The landed gentry, or more accurately, private interests, to protect THEIR profit margins, and THEIR rights, as opposed to the rights of the people… Can’t have those ignorant voters taking money out of their pockets in their dissatisfaction, now, can we?….

Oh, and by the way…. When was the last time we heard about a policeman getting arrested , ( Or women, though police women don’t seem to ever go as completely overboard in their zealousness as their male counterparts, at least not without first becoming more male than female in their attitudes about violence, and the use of it to control the public….), for being violent during a protest? Or actually being prosecuted, and convicted for those kinds of acts? Very, very seldom, as you are well aware, I’m sure…. That particular issue is generally taken in hand by many governments by passing laws making the police immune to prosecution for ANYTHING they do while on duty…. pretty slick, eh? Become a policeman, get a get-out-of-jail-free card to stick in your wallet….

Not bad work, if you’ve got the stomach for it, along with a very, very skewed and distorted sense of honor, and justice…. To my mind, in the current state of our society, it takes a pretty sick mind to want to take on the duties of a police officer…. Sadly, there just aren’t enough honest, honorable men to fill the empty spaces, and the need for them….

As a result, I’d estimate that at least half of the men, and, almost as many of the women, who try to become police officers are clinically insane, and should never be allowed to have that sort of power over others, for they WILL eventually, even consistently, use that power for their own ends, or use it in ways that are destructive to the public good…. It’s their nature to do so, and they WILL do so, if given the chance… As evidence, I will once more point to the news, and the many instances reported of dishonorable, destructive behavior by police officers….

It must be remembered, THOSE reports only tell of the ones who are caught, or prosecuted, or screw up so badly even their own mates turn on them…. How many instances of police bullying, or intimidation of citizens in the pursuit of their ends, actually show up in those reports?…. More significantly, how often do you see a news report, many months after an incident, that was investigated for wrong-doing, or illegalities on the part of the officers, that exonerates the officers of all wrong? Of course, the fact that these investigations are carried out by OTHER POLICE OFFICERS seems to forever lose its place among the reactions from the press….

SIGH, now, I’m a little bummed out…. Here it is, not quite 7 AM, I’ve got a dental appointment to live through at 10, and I’ve already put the hammer to the First Amendment…. Say BYE BYE, ffolkes, to that hallowed document, the Bill of Rights, otherwise known as the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, because the efforts of the past 235 years by the corporate masters to do away with that hallowed document, as predicted by Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, George Mason, and a number of other of our Founding Fathers, have almost reached their desired results….

Most, if not all, of the rights we were guaranteed in the Bill of Rights have now been abridged, in one way or another, and we can not depend on ANYONE in our government to give them back…. Not when we’ve already given them the keys to the treasury, by allowing them the right to vote their own salaries, their own health care system, their own retirement, all without ever realizing we were doing so….. The American people have cooperated fully in their own enslavement, ffolkes, and though the collars we wear are not yet such as to kill us outright with their fit, nonetheless have taught us to do without a lot of the freedoms our forefathers gave us, with our full, if sadly ignorant, consent….

Sorry to be the one to bring this out, but, hey, somebody has to, right? Right….. I may not be a small child, but, as far as I can see, the Emperor is NOT wearing any clothes, ffolkes….. Now, let’s see how many ffolkes, and/or folks, out there will either admit to it, or reject my assertions…. nicely, of course…. I suppose this is a good place to bring this rant to a dignified close, though, given my history, that’s pretty much out of the question… the dignity, I mean… I think I’m going to have to resort to a pearl to make my escape…. so, let’s see if Smart Bee can come up with just the right one…..

“What now if the sky were to fall?” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Heautontimoroumenos, Act iv, Sc. 3, 41, (719.)

“If you don’t make the rules, you don’t have to keep them. If you do make the rules, you won’t anyway.” — Smart Bee

How admirable, he who thinks not,
Life is fleeting,
When he sees the lightning!

— Basho

Well, it took three, and that’s okay, too…. because they’re perfect….

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Here is one of my older poems, that fits in well with today’s apparent theme…. I hope you enjoy it….

Rejection

“Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so…”
I’d be crying a river, I thought
if ever such crap I bought.

Sorry if it hurts your sense of style,
but, hypocrisy always gives me bile.
Being lied to accidentally is okay,
but, deliberate lies make me angry, and fey.

Oh, God, hear what I pray!
Keep me from your followers today.
Having to listen to so much that is wrong
makes me puke, before it makes me strong.

I don’t know why it isn’t clear to other folks,
which is alright, you know, different strokes.
But, why should that mean that they must
force me to believe, or fail in trust?

Spare me the lies, and the make-believe,
fairy tales are easier to hear, and to weave.
They give us a lesson which we can feel
but don’t pretend at all to be real.

Reality can scare us, that’s a given fact,
still, met with care it will leave us mostly intact.
Met without fear, standing tall and alone
Life will allow us to make it our own.

Folly beckons, and so many follow
mass delusions seem to me most hollow.
I’ll have to stick to my own chosen way
while so many go so sadly astray.

It’s lonely at times, it may seem sad,
but really isn’t, and I’m quite glad,
that knowledge is always stronger than fear,
year after year, tear after tear…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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The following is what might be considered a partial pearl…. Just one entry, with a number of good zingers, all of which hit me where I’ve lived, an environment where I spent many an interesting day, and night, trying to maintain my own sanity in the face of what isn’t supposed to be, but, actually, is rather infectious, if exposed to it for long periods of time… to wit: Insanity, insanity, as far as the eye can see, and not a drop to…. oops, sorry, wrong cliche…. Any who, working with people who live at the extreme edges of human thought and existence is always interesting, and often, if one can keep intact one’s sense of the ludicrous, more than just a little entertaining….

** Hello and Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline **

If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.
If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5 and 6.
If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want – just stay on the line so we can trace the call.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press next.
If you are manic-depressive, it doesn’t matter which number you press – no one will answer.
If you suffer from panic attacks, push every button you can find.
If you are sane, please hold on – we have the rest of humanity on the other line and they desperately want to ask you a few questions.

— true phone script for operators at the Berzerkeley Crisis Hot Line

— okay, so that’s a lie. It could be, though….

— Shoot…. I must have used this before, because the Spell Checker didn’t react at all to the word ‘Berzerkeley’….

— Alright, so, it’s not mine; I don’t know who did it, but, it’s funny as shit, especially to a former psychiatric technician…. You’ve got to admit, the one about the co-dependent is pretty sardonic, not to mention sly…. Okay, so I’m odd…. I knew that, and, you should have, as soon as you saw the dog in the bumble bee outfit…. Deal with it….

I actually wrote this pearl yesterday…. In the interim, it occurred to me that there might be some people who would consider this to be offensive, in that it makes (mild) fun of people with problems…. To those people I would say this: one of the primary characteristics of all the conditions of mental illness listed above is the loss of any sense of humor, about much of anything, and certainly not about their condition….

This lack is a large part of why they are having the problems to begin with, and I would point out that the urge to be politically correct about such matters indicates a certain lack of humor, as applied to one’s self…. and I can can tell you, without a single doubt, that being able to laugh at yourself is probably the primary characteristic of those who are sane, and can deal with reality on its terms….

TO MANKIND And the hope that the war against folly may someday be won, after all. — Dedicatory note of The Gods Themselves

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For a Pearl that grew so much, this went smoothly; mise en place is a good thing…. and, no, I’m not going to explain that now. This is already too long. In fact, I shouldn’t be surprised if it became the longest Pearl ever, but, that remains to be seen…. Regardless, it’s done, and I’m outta here. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid the dubious

Flicking and swishing here, your grogginess….

Posted on August 4, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce
ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.

~~ Plutarch (46-120 AD) ~~ Of Hearing, 6

—————————————————————————-

True is suffering; this is true cause;
this is true cessation; this is the true path.

Know the sufferings; give up they causes;
attain the cessation of the suffering; follow the true paths.

Know the sufferings although there is nothing to know;
relinquish the causes of misery although there is nothing to relinquish;
be earnest in cessation although there is nothing to cease;
practice the means of cessation although there is nothing to practice.

~~ Buddha, The Four Noble Truths ~~

In case there is ANY question as to the meaning of any of the above…. The first quote is there to set the tone…. The next quote, from the Buddha, is there to show how the Buddha understood Reality, which is to say, very well…. If you look at the picture of the three pals napping on the sidewalk, then consider the Four Noble Truths, you will see that each of these animals…. dog, cat, rat…. are all perfect examples of a creature who LIVES by those precepts…. They all know how hard life can be, but are content to have a serene moment of companionship, without becoming wrapped up in any species-oriented chauvinism…. I think it’s pretty cool myself…

It’s also a good thing it’s here, because I’m late again, and will have to rely on stuff that was either done ahead of time, or is very quick and easy to put in here, where it can do me some good…. Some bloggers would probably just re-blog an old blog, but, I like to at least put some effort into making something fresh each day, even if it is only a fresh reprint of an older piece…. I’m finding my rants from a couple of years ago are all still pretty valid, what with the crap that continues to plague us due to the shenanigans of the Asininnies, and their ilk….

Since I am so late, though, we’ll go with some of that older material, just to save the time…. At least I’m not using the old lame excuse of expediency, or doing this because of my own hidden agenda…. No, my agenda is right out there, and only has to do with getting done with this with a bit of dignity intact, not with ripping y’all off, or making sure I’m in control of your life…. which is what you can count on from your local politicians, and their myrmidons….

In that vein, I believe I may have reached a point where I can put an end to this intro section…. or, if that isn’t feasible, I can usually use one of the methods we’ve developed to help us in these moments of uncertainty…. Why, look, here’s one of them now! I believe it’s actually the method we call #4, the old standby…. It works like this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“It did not matter, after all. He was only one man. One man’s fate is not important.
If it is not, what is?
He could not endure those remembered words.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin, spoken by Gaverel Rocannon, Rocannon’s World

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since I am not going to rant this morning, I’m going to sublimate, in order to relieve some of the built-up angst, from the last couple of days of headline reading without producing a rant to release the worst of the pressure, I will create an old-school pearl, fresh and sharp, to poke some holes in the blanket of wool that the Asininnies are forever trying to pull over our eyes….

“If turkeys could fly Congress would be an airport…!” — Smart Bee

“As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.” — George Washington

(Well…. So much for THAT idea!…..)

“The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“I don’t care what is written about me so long as it isn’t true.” — Dorothy Parker

(A little known fact about this quote…. Dorothy was quoting Howard Taft….)

(That, of course, is a lie; I made it up…. but, it SOUNDS true, doesn’t it?…. By which, we see it may be defined as a “political truth”….)

“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.” — Voltaire

“If you have a weak candidate and a weak platform, wrap yourself up in the American flag and talk about the Constitution.” — Matthew S. Quay

“The reason that poverty and homelessness exist is not because capitalism is not working properly, but because that is the way it works.” — Smart Bee

Not bad, not bad at all for what it is…. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did….. I’m going to go clean up now…. Wait, first, I’ll try to make up for this, with one more pearl, that should help you feel a little better…. If not, well, there’s always aspirin in the first-aid kit if you want one….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m going with mine, to save time, and blame…. I hope you enjoy this one; it’s from December of 2012…..

Dreaming of Calliope

La belle dame sans merci speaks aloud through endless night,
torturing dreams, with powerful words and stentorian phrases.
Manifest visions bathed in unbearable grace and light,
destroying all direction, standing lost, in unfathomable mazes.

Fate plays a part, one that will never face denial,
as fear and courage eternally vie for ascendancy.
Conflict becomes valid, gifting strength in open trial,
but honest emotion wears no costume so fancy.

Blood, sweat, and tears stroll on avenues of gold,
unlikely heroines heralding as in ancient lore;
Sharp, competent knives cut through tales untold,
eternally shifting reality past the naked shore.

Drifting toward origin, bereft of mandate or cause,
finished, nay, abandoned, tied with a figurative bow.
No simple gift from muses to give comfort or pause,
save that all we need to know, we already know…..

~~ gigoid ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following older pearl is one I’ve probably used many times, as it contains much of the wisdom I use personally to guide my actions through life…. It’s all stuff I learned, one way or another, from my Dad, the Master Sergeant…. All of this could be considered to be ACTUAL wisdom, I think; it’s much more valid, and useful, than most of what you’ll find masquerading as such, and is certainly more than merely virtual wisdom…. because it’s all been tested by time, and found to be true….

From 9/30/2012:

Here are some true pearls of virtual wisdom from the acknowledged Grand Master of Science Fiction…… arrogantly solipsistic, delightfully honest, absolutely moral according to whim, and eminently useful in pursuing a full life of honor and joy…..

“The only real sin is hurting others unnecessarily. All other sins are made up nonsense…. (Hurting yourself is not sinful, just stupid.)” — Robert Heinlein

“A desire not to butt into other people’s business is at least eighty percent of all human wisdom… and the other twenty percent isn’t very important.”
“You butt into other people’s business. All the time.”
“Who said I was wise? I’m a professional bad example. You can learn a lot by watching me.” –Dr. Jubal Harshaw — Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein

“Don’t store garlic near other victuals.” — from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of “loyalty” and “duty.” Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute — get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed.” — from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?” — Robert Heinlein

“The more you love, the more you can love — and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.” — Robert Heinlein

Lastly….. a statement that serves as an adjunct to Peruaosophy; indeed, it’s more that that, as it forms a critical part of the basic premises, upon which that philosophy was created…..

“Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please — this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!
So learn to say No – and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.) ” — Robert Heinlein

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, as is sometimes the case when I arise late, and push a bit to get this done on time, I feel a bit scattered at the end…. which, I suppose, isn’t all that surprising, given the nature of what I’m doing….. It’s okay, really, because it means I’ve been focused, so the results should meet any of the loose standards to which I hold these Pearls…. If not, well, too bad, so sad, because, hey, it’s done, and we’re NOT going to do it over…. On that note, I should follow my own advice, and take my leave before it gets any riskier…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided the NSA leaves me be….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid the dubious

gigoid

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: US Constitution

2nd door on the left….flush twice….

Passages from the Book of Righteousness….

Saved… by the Belle of the Ball….

Perhaps he’ll wait for the proper moment….

Bust it up, boys! It’s all gotta go!….

Sir! Curb your cellulite!….

Polly frigging HATES crackers!…..

All those attending the apocalypse, board here….

All the king’s horses…. are fat….

Flicking and swishing here, your grogginess….

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